Audhu billahi min as-shaytan ir-rajeem
Bismillahir-rahmani ir-raheem
Futuhat al-Khalwat
Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
11-03-2005
We begin where we left off last time, from the experiences of inspiration that the guide or master will send you through seclusion and how through seclusion you can understand things more than in real life. When you are out, you are in dunya life. We say that is a real life, but in reality it is the life that has no reality. It is going to end. Every day that passes, it means one day of the life of the world is gone, one day less. Every hour that goes we are one hour less; every minute or second that goes we are one second less.
Every breath we breathe in and out, is less from the days that we are going to live on earth. So in seclusion it will be different. It will inspire you through guidance of your teacher who is always observing you in seclusion, trying to keep you on the track. Like a railway train, it cannot be off the track. If it is off the track, the whole train with all its passengers will fall down. To show you the reality of the eternal life is the whole goal of the seclusion.
As we described previously in the lectures beginning in Ramadan, including discussions about satanic power -- Iblees power -- all these powers of Iblees that he tries to catch human beings with will drop when you express humbleness. You must express the real taste of humbleness, not just say it by mouth. Saying it by mouth is so easy. Humbleness is not by mouth, it is by action. That does not come until the heart is boiling from love of Allah, 'ishk, infatuation with divine love that makes the lid of the heart to shake, in order to bring that humbleness out. Because as much as you are in the state of infatuation to the Divine Presence is as much as you feel you are nothing. You are nothing, no presence and no existence to you; existence is to Allah (swt) and the whole creation that Allah created, the only one that existed in that creation and who is responsible for all creation is Muhammadun Rasulullah. So who are you to compare yourself to anyone else? Always you have to see yourself to be inferior to everyone else. That is how you train yourself to be inferior to everyone else. Allah may make you superior, but you have to show your ego, o you are nothing. You don't deserve that.
As Allah opened to Bayazid al-Bistami, when he was seeking and asking Allah to open for me your door. What did you do for me? I am praying and fasting and worshipping, following the Sunnah of the prophet.
He did not say I know. People today say, "I know," in daily life. If that happened in daily life, what happens if you say that in presence of Allah? So in seclusions they teach you not to do that.
So Bayazid said, "O my lord, what do I have to do?" Go and be a garbage dump for my servants. That is to make you feel low, low and lower until you disappear. So awliyaullah understand the meaning of the dump in a way. That means no existence. What is a dump? A dump is a place that garbage is thrown there. You see it there. But after a while they disintegrate, decompose and finish, there is nothing there. So they realize there is nothing.
But Iblees no, on the contrary Iblees is carrying, awliyaullah; they carry the burden of people. [Iblees is carrying what?]They take these bad characters to be dumped out of people. Every one of us is carrying these characteristics. Mistakenly and unknowingly we accept our body to carry these bad characteristics. Our body becomes a dump to carry these bad characters and we don't let it go, we are keeping it.
Awliyaullah understand it in a different way. To take away from people the bad characters and take it and dissolve. Normal people keep it, take it and keep it, like possessions. They see it as decoration of dunya; this is the beautiful way of life.
There were awliya like Bahlul; he was eating only milk and bread. He said if Allah asks me what I did, I am keeping a goat, eating bread and drinking milk; have some barley and eating.
People, their whole [existence] is desires of mouth and desire of lower. There is desire of the mouth, always being hungry. There are people who eat and vomit and eat and vomit. They are bulimic. They eat, it is their pleasure. Then there is the normal sex pleasure.
That is why the prophet (s) said, "Who can guarantee what is between his jaws and between his legs, I guarantee him paradise."
So when we are dumping all these characteristics of Iblees, we are happy. That is the problem, but awliya they put you in seclusion in order to make these characteristics disintegrate.
That is why Grandshaykh, may Allah bless him, usually in seclusion he was in the upper floor, higher floor, and his wife serving him, was downstairs. She served him tea and food. When the time for food comes she cannot bring it until he knocks on the floor for her, letting her know it is time to bring it.
So many months pass. One day she does not hear this stick hitting the floor, tapping on the floor. She kept quiet. She has no right to open the door or to go in and check. The second day no [tapping], third day no. She was worried. She went to Shaykh Sharafuddin, saying, "O Shaykh Sharafuddin!" For many days, Shaykh Abdullah did not tap for me for food or water or tea. He said, "Leave him, don't worry, he will call you back." It went seven days. In these seven days, and Grandshaykh is saying that story, that is how you see experiences in seclusion and you understand them. Because in his heart, when Shaykh Sharafuddin used to speak about Shah Naqshband and about his manaqib, his stories and events, some of his love shifted there because of the high station that he was speaking about, the love for his Shaykh dropped a little bit.[Whose love dropped for which shaykh?] That is a state, a scale. In the scale the barometer has to go up until it hits the roof. Like these roller coasters they go up and up and up, they go 100 feet, then they come down quickly. So if they don't reach up to the level they don't come down, with half power. So the love began to shift. That is very important to us. So in order to learn the importance of his Shaykh, Shah Naqshband, with his spiritual form -- because awliyaullah can move freely, even beyond time, past present future same -- came to him. In Mawlana Shaykh Abdullah al-Faiz ad-Daghestani's seclusion he came where he was doing that seclusion and from that huge window said, "Ya Abdullah come with me."
One time Grandshaykh showed me Sayyidina Shah Naqshband, how he looked.[Who is saying this? MSH?] So he took him and went for seven days and seven nights. That is why he was not responding to his wife for food and tea. He was not there, gone. It means his spirit was gone out from the body. Body is there. Awliyaullah have that power. Many people in the West say they are going out of their bodies. This is imitation to show you there is something real. That is plastic fruit. That is telling you the real one is there. Allah gives signs like that.
So he took him 7 days and 7 nights, and wherever his eyes are reaching of horizon he reaches there, with that speed. So they reached a place after 7 days and nights, they are reaching with the blink of an eye, to where the vision reaches the horizon. That means the speed of light. That is 300,000 km per second. That is the speed of light. Count in seven days, 24 hours multiply by 60, by 60 now multiply by 200,000, that is 1.6 million miles, correct (5 billion)? Reaching like that. Where is that in the universe? The moon is 300,000 km, so where he took him?
Where? The sun is 80 million miles from earth. Where they went? Showing that reaching a place and he said look on the horizon, as far as you can go. He was looking and seeing someone like a form, far away, you cannot distinguish. [asks someone] Do you know that? {you know better}
That is adab in front of Shaykh. Don't say in front of Shaykh, "I know." Say, "You know better." In normal issues, say, "I know, he doesn't know plumbing, electrician, carpenter." If he asks you something, answer. But in spirituality say, "You know better."
He said, now you can see. He said you know that? You know better. He did not jump to give an answer. Today we jump to give an answer.
He said this is Shaykh Sharafuddin, your Shaykh. He knows that is his Shaykh, it is his Shaykh. And what is that big animal with him. You know better. He said this is Iblees. Allah gave him the authority to hold Iblees with a bridle, and every 24 hours the evil deeds of servants, he is dumping on Iblees. That is one of the specialties that Allah is giving to one wali. That is one of the hundreds of thousands of characteristics that each wali has. He said, "That level, no wali reached it. Dumping all the sins on Iblees and bringing the followers to the prophet clean yesterday."
These characteristics are the peacockness characteristics of Iblees that he has been molded with, and that is why Allah cursed him. Although as we said previously, Iblees said, "I cannot do sajda to anyone else, only to you ya Allah." Look how Iblees was at the beginning, not accepting to make sajda, except to Allah. Then his bad characteristics overtook that good intention and flipped him. You created him from clay and created me from fire. Clay. What is that fire? What is fire? Do you know what fire is?
Allah created him from fire. That fire can eat everything except water. We have made from everything water live. Fire cannot eat water, but can eat everything [else].
Haqq al-hayaat, wa hayaatan abadee[1], the reality of the water is the reality of the fountain of knowledge, that Allah made everything from water to be living. That is why our body is 97 percent water. Nothing can destroy water but water can destroy fire. So if you carry a watery life style, that means if you are dipped in the ocean of water, that is the ocean of the beautiful names and attributes of Allah, those oceans of mercy, buhur ar-rahmah, the water mercy. Mercy comes out, from the real water, not drinking water, this is dunya water. There is secret in H2O It is 2 gases. Fire is a gas. So everything goes back to its gaseous state.
So Iblees is made of fire. Immediately he came back to his nonsense, to his bad characteristics. "I am made from fire." Fire is something that is coming from dumpsters.
You don't go on the highway and see these dumpsters, and they are dumping the garbage there? What happens then? Gas comes out and then the gas burns. So these dumpsters, the garbage ones are becoming fire. He is created from the dumpsters of the bad characteristics of the evil life of human beings. He is created from the bad characteristics of all human beings. That is his fire from which he is created. Angels are not created from fire. The only one mentioned as created from fire is Iblees. So that reality is that he is a dumpster becoming a fiery gas that burns everything.
And that is what we explained [about] the dumpster, and they put over and over and under they have pipes and you see a pipe coming out and a fire burning -- that is the gas that is being burned.
So all these bad characters of Iblees are coming out and becoming oil. Their urine is that oil that is coming. Because of that oil, all kinds of problems are coming on earth. And most of the oil comes from all these countries that their character is tyranny. This is one of the secrets that Mawlana is showing.
So that is what Shah Naqshband was showing Grandshaykh, showing that he is created from fire and Iblees must carry all those bad characters. Everyone's bad character has to be dumped on him. "I am better than him; he created me from naar and created him from teen."
Alladhee ja`ala lakum min ash-shajara il- akhdari naaran...[quote completed?]
He said from a green tree fire, and he described from the green tree, the live tree. I make from the life of eternity, fire that you can take warmth with it. That means the eternal life of knowledge. The green tree [is] like a pine tree. That is evergreen, when you submit to Allah's knowledge, always standing, never dying. These guides are the green tree. They guide you to Allah's love, which is the fire of infatuation. What Sayyidina Musa saw was the fire of infatuation. Innee aanastu naaran …tastaloon.[quote completed?]
Aanastu naaran. I felt the flame of fire, intimate fire. Not a normal fire. Aanastu naar. It builds an intimation, an intimacy, lahab. Let me go and get something from it or a piece of it that you may warm yourself. So this comes from the green tree, not from the dumpster's fire. Not from oil. It says shajara al-akhdari. Living trees. Not from dumpsters, or dead trees. Oil underground is dead. It means green; from guidance I bring you the real warmth and the real fire. That comes from humbleness to reach to real guidance. They teach you real humbleness and not arrogance. They want to throw your evil characters on Iblees.
He said, "I am better, I am fire. I am flame." But what kind of fire? The worst of fire. That is why these countries that are governed by tyrants, by the equator, they are the headquarters of the abaalisa[TRANSLATE]. That all comes from that part of the world, all hurricanes and tornadoes. Look near the equator and that is where the majority of oil is present, the urine of Iblees and his group. And the people are now happy, saying "O that is nice. Now they make everything out of it -- clothes out of it, polyester. Everyone is drinking the urine of Iblees. That is all bad characteristics coming out of it. That is why you have no … no one is happy. That is overtaking your body, without your being aware, these bad characteristics. This energy, all these huge TV stations, or electric plan stations coming from fuel. They are run by fuel. Even some are running with atomic reaction or whatever, but still they have fuel inside. It was not like that before; they were using green wood or mining coal.
May Allah… we will continue tomorrow or today at later time.
May Allah guide us to learn humbleness. That is how they guide you in seclusion to understand the reality of everything. We can expand on it too much to understand we are helpless and we cannot do anything. Today the whole world is drunk with oil. Everything even you want to go anywhere you have to use that oil, which to angels is the worst element, but to humans it is the best because it is coming from Iblees. And Allah (swt) has the best wisdom of what is happening.
Bi-hurmatil Fatiha.
[1] abide
Showing posts with label 2005. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2005. Show all posts
March 03, 2009
Mawlana Shaykh Hisham: The Fire for Believers is to be away from the Prophet (s)
Suhbat 10-03-2005
About Mawlana Shaykh Hisham 2005 Khalwat
Audhu billahi, Audhu billahi, Audhu billahi min ash-Shaytan ir-rajeem
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Raheem
Nawaytu 'l-arba'een, nawaytu 'l-'itikaaf, nawaytu 'l-khalwah, nawaytu 'r-riyaada, nawaytu 's-salook, nawaytu 'l-'uzlat lillahi ta'ala al-'adheem fee hadha 'l-masjid.
We continue where we stopped last session and we say that always ask support from Allah swt and fight worriness, qalak, to be worried. Fight that and fight failure by the power that Allah will give you and be careful of the monitoring of shaytan, he is always trying to find the best time to catch you by your feet and throw you into dunya's desires.
He found the best time for Sayyidina Adam by saying
فَوَسْوَسَ إِلَيْهِ الشَّيْطَانُ قَالَ يَا آدَمُ هَلْ أَدُلُّكَ عَلَى شَجَرَةِ الْخُلْدِ وَمُلْكٍ لَّا يَبْلَى
فَأَكَلَا مِنْهَا فَبَدَتْ لَهُمَا سَوْآتُهُمَا وَطَفِقَا يَخْصِفَانِ عَلَيْهِمَا مِن وَرَقِ الْجَنَّةِ وَعَصَى آدَمُ رَبَّهُ فَغَوَى
ثُمَّ اجْتَبَاهُ رَبُّهُ فَتَابَ عَلَيْهِ وَهَدَى
قَالَ اهْبِطَا مِنْهَا جَمِيعًا بَعْضُكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ عَدُوٌّ فَإِمَّا يَأْتِيَنَّكُم مِّنِّي هُدًى فَمَنِ اتَّبَعَ هُدَايَ فَلَا يَضِلُّ وَلَا يَشْقَى
Fa waswasa ilayhi ash-shaytanu qaala ya adamu hal adulluka 'ala shajarati al-khuldi wa mulkin la yabla Fa akala minha fa badat lahuma sawatuhuma watafiqa yakhsifani 'alayhima min waraqi al-jannati wa 'asa adamu rabbahu faghawa. Thumma ijtabahu rabbuhu fataba 'alayhi wa hada. Qala ihbita minha jamee'an ba'dukum li-ba'din 'aduwwun fa imma yatiyannakum minnee hudan famani ittaba'a hudaya fala yadillu wa laa yashqa.
But Satan whispered evil to him: he said, "O Adam! shall I lead thee to the Tree of Eternity and to a kingdom that never decays?" In the result, they both ate of the tree, and so their nakedness appeared to them: they began to sew together, for their covering, leaves from the Garden: thus did Adam disobey his Lord, and allow himself to be seduced. But his Lord chose him (for His Grace): He turned to him, and gave him Guidance. He said: "Get ye down, both of you,- all together, from the Garden, with enmity one to another: but if, as is sure, there comes to you Guidance from Me, whosoever follows My Guidance, will not lose his way, nor fall into misery. Surah TaHa: 20: 120 123
Iblees, Satan, whispered in the ear of Sayyidna Adam, in his heart. He was looking for the right time and the right moment. He said "I will guide you to the abode[1] tree, the tree from which you eat will make you eternal."
What happened when he ate from the tree? All the veils that were veiling him from what you cannot show from your body, araha, he removed all these beautiful and majestic veils that kept him from being naked completely out. That means when you listen to shaytan will be completely taken out, those beautiful dresses you achieve from prayers and worship, that Allah dresses you with, all of them will go. Then he looks naked in the eyes of Adam, in his own eyes, not in the eyes of angels. Allah showed him that what you did is going to make you naked. What did he do? He was taking the leaves of the Paradise and trying to cover his private parts. That is he was ashamed to be seen with his ayb, his sin. How to cover that sin, he was taking the leaves of the trees in paradise, it means he was repenting.
Those leaves are a description of something that is eternal, how long it is kept in Allah's hands.
Getting those leaves means to get the heavenly power to cover himself. That is why Allah ajtabahu. Then Allah took him back from the hands of Iblees, because he found that repentance in his heart, not like Iblees.
He guided him to the right way but Allah's Irada, Will, is to send him to earth. That is to teach human beings the suffering of this life, by sending them to this life because of the sin that was committed in paradise. Even though Allah accepted him back and accepted his repentance and forgave him, but still He sent him dunya, and he was carrying the light of Sayyidina Muhammad. That light was moving in the forehead of the Adam and was going like a turbine, running and making tahlil, tasbih, tahmid and …
That Is the light that the angels saw and they could not control themselves and went into sajda. Only Satan did not go into sajda, he though his light is better. He did not want to surrender as he thought he is going to be al-Mustafa, the Chosen One, he thought he would carry that light. Out of envy and jealousy - not only of Adam but of the Prophet (s), he was jealous and did not make sajda. That is Allah's will also, the wisdom of it Allah knows. That disobedience has a hikmat there, to leave Satan to the end of the world.
These kinds of secrets, awliyaullah, thru seclusions, and rabitah to their Shaykh and showing their complete helplessness to their master, these masters will throw into their hearts these kinds of meanings. These kinds of meanings doesn't come to everyone who is writing from today's lecturers, it is something that is deep that only opens to hearts of awliya from the Prophet and awliya open to their followers
So shaytan is trying his best to monitor you and as soon as he finds a way to catch your leg he will catch and try to dump into desires of dunya away from akhira.
Inna an-ni'amat mawsulatan bish-shukr. The favors are connected to shukr, you cannot get ni'amat without thanking Allah. That is why you have to say 500 times ash-shukru lillahi and 500 time alhamdulillah
And the shukr is connected with increase, to give more. And Allah said in Holy Qur'an, when you thank me I give you more.
So it means that if you thank Allah and leave dunya, not only the bad desires of dunya, you want to be rich it is ok, you want to work hard it is ok, but give it in the way of Allah. Raise your family nicely, raise your children nicely and remember that Allah has a share in your money as it is not your money. Then your dunya becomes a connection to mazeed. And what is mazeed? It is akhira. That is one of the names of akhira, mazeed. There that mazeed is continuous, it is never going to be less or the same, but is continuously accumulating higher and higher, more and more.
So if your 'amal was good, fal mazeedu takun al-jannah. Increase will be your paradise.
وِمِنْهُم مَّن يَقُولُ رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
Wa minhum man yaqoolu rabbana atina fee ad-dunya hasanatan wafee al-akhirati hasanatan waqina 'adhaaba an-naari
And there are men who say: "Our Lord! Give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and defend us from the torment of the Fire!" Suratu 'l-Baqara: 2:201
rabbana atina feed-dunya hasanatan wa fil-akhira hasanatan.
O Allah give us hasanatin in dunya and hasanat in akhira. So it is a bridge, the dunya is a bridge to protect you from 'adhab an'naar hellfire. That means to protect you from being away form the presence of Allah. There is no hellfire for believers, but the hellfire for believers if they are not with Prophet, if they are not in the company of alladheena ana`amAllahu alayhim min an-nabiyyeen, was-siddiqeen…
To be away from prophets, trustworthy people, away form martyrs, away from sincere pious people, that is inside going to be like a fire inside us.
So Allah gave you both, rabbana atina fi'd-dunya hasanatan wa fil-akhira hasanatan wa qina 'adhab an'naar… so Allah is giving you both. So don't reject either. Take what Allah gave to you. Don't say "I want dunya, not akhira."
However if your amal was that which you followed the desire of the self, because you got bored, as we mentioned the 3 bad characters, al-malal, boredom. If you get bored you are going to worry, al-qalak, then you worry about what you are doing and you end up in failure. Boredom, worry and failure, when you entered into these three levels and you are not patient on carrying all kinds of difficulties and opposites and troubles, crossfire is a talk shows. One from here and one from there. There is a crossfire in the self. One coming from shaytan, whispering and one coming from heavenly sources. You are in the fire. Now if you are not able to be patient and understand where you have to follow you are going to fall into what, the hands of shaytan. And you are going to get mazeed increase, in that if you fall in the hands and follow Shaytan. Both sides you get increase, dunya or akhira.
If you thank shaytan he will give you more hellfire. If you thank Allah he will give you more of akhira.
Some people thank shaytan, they are worshippers of shaytan. That is a new movement, devil-worshipper. He is going to give them mazeed also, and that is his increase, the fire. This time the mazeed for you is the fire.
يَوْمَ نَقُولُ لِجَهَنَّمَ هَلِ امْتَلَأْتِ وَتَقُولُ هَلْ مِن مَّزِيدٍ
Yawma naqoolu li jahannama hali imtalati wataqoolu hal min mazeed.
One Day We will ask Hell, "Art thou filled to the full?" It will say, "Are there any more (to come)?" Surah Qaf: 50:30
Allah swt asks hellfire, "are you full, are you happy," and Hell will say "no, give me more." So if you follow Shaytan you get more. Allah saying in Holy Qur'an, "O hellfire are you satisfied?" and it replies, "No, is there more?" Then I will have more wood to burn. If you read surat al-Hadeed, how Allah described , as the Prophet looked in Isra and Mi'raj, and saw women hung by ropes from their breasts with burning pus which was eating them from top to bottom, also similarly men. So the description in the Holy Qur'an of hellfire, makes you to go nuts, (I don't like to use that word.) So be careful O human beings, where you are going in this life.
Therefore you have to stick to knowledge and Gnosticism in order to prevent yourself from falling into the desires of this dunya. And to do that you need a guidance. Allah sent prophets to guide the ummah. And from the inheritors of the secrets of the Prophet there are many guided, that is why you must accompany a perfect Shaykh, mutamarasa fee funoon al-`uloom, knowledge of Shari'ah and knowledge of tariqat. Anyone says I only follow tariqat not shariah, that is wrong. The Shaykh must be complete, all kinds of artistic experiences. 'Ilm ash- Shari'ah and 'ilm at-tariqat is an art, not like a parrot reciting and reading. This scholar said this and this one said that. Under each line is a footnote. Not he read all these footnotes but he is like an artist able to pull out all the knowledge of Shari'ah and tariqat.
And he has vast awareness of what he is advising you in order not to be an easy target or easy corpse to shaytan. And he shows you the way of and guide you and direct to the real way of istiqamah and guidance and he will take you thru a journey, don't think that journey is going to be an easy journey, people come to the guru and it is easy journey, they have money in pockets and if they don't find food, they go to restaurants.
One day a lady came to Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, one of the biggest awliya in his time and in our time. He saw all these students, 80 years of age, 20, 30 40, and all sitting in adab in front of their Shaykh. And when time came to eat, there were servants who were assigned to prepare the food. And in front of each one a huge rooster, a huge one, not like today they have in production artificial farms where each rooster is like a turkey, 25, 30 lbs. One in front of each . As soon as the Shaykh make du`a, each one eats that huge turkey, and nothing left.
She said, "that is good place for my son, if he east half and brings me half, that is good." She went to Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani and said, "I want my son to be one of my students." And he said, "ok." He was young. He saw his heart was clean not following shaytan, so he took him.
So she came after one week to check her son. She was thinking he will be perfect and have that rooster in front of him and snacks at night. People it is not enough to eat their food, they have big bags of snacks during day and night.
She went and did not find her son. She asked, "where is my son?" They said, "he is in the cellar." She went down and thinking, "O he has his rooster, and he is eating and saving some for me." She found her son and in this seven days it might be lost 7 kilos. He had with him one piece of bread and seven olives. She said, "What is this!?" He said "This is what I am eating in 24 hours."
She went to Shaykh and said, "O Sayyidi, what is this I brought my son to get what others are eating, 25-30 pound rooster/ turkey."
You cannot get akhira without leaving dunya. People eat today because of their desire. The desire is from mouth to throat. As soon as it enters it goes to esophagus and form there no taste. That is why in the hospital they feed some patients by tubes which go directly to stomach. They don't need to go through the mouth.
That is why the Prophet said, "Whoever can guarantee me what is between his jaws and what is between his legs, I will guarantee him Paradise." That is the problem. Everyone is running after these two things, the tongue, to backbite and to eat and private parts to down that every you can do. They collect money, collect buildings for their desires, is there anything else.
So the Shaykh will guide you to tariq ar-rashaad, the way of protection, the way of istiqamah. Like the Alif is standing up, the way that takes you to Allah, way of rashaad, means way of maturity. Through a very difficult, what you call it when they put prisoners in prison, for life, for labor. Labor camps. He takes you thru a journey of labor camps. Like we explained that boy with say. Abdul Qadir Jilani. Who today is doing labor camps? Shaykhs guide you thru that labor camp. It is very difficult work, like in time of pharaoh, and they are carrying the stones and being whipped, falling down and being whipped until they fall and die. The Shaykh his observing you. He said I was observing you in these 40 days and the extra days of salook and I was worried that you are going to die. I was monitoring and worried you reach that point. Seclusion is not easy, but sometimes, people sit there for years and as they go in as they go out, thru their beliefs.
Thru these labor camps teach you how to cross from shat ad-dunya to shat al-akhira, passing thru that stormy ocean that in front of you wants to swallow you, like the tornado Katrina, and Rita. I don't know how they call them. Like these very huge tornadoes that are in the ocean and it is an ocean of tornado and you have to pass and to be safe the Shaykh knows where to move thru the tornado in order to avoid being destroyed.
So he takes you from an ocean that has no beginning and no end, you have to complete 'alayk al muthabar, and continue working and going and to learn what you are going to see thru your journey until you reach the realities and truth and ma`rifat li tustikhraj minhu albahr almuheet. They will give you power in the face of these tornadoes the of power to go and extract from these realities. The tornado is no on the bottom, it is on the top. If you go deep in the ocean it is calm although it affects some layers at the top.
And that ocean that stormy ocean that he showed in front of you, when you reach the bottom and extract these knowledges, it is the heart of the Shaykh. He will throw you in his heart where you will be very peaceful and realized, you realize it is your Shaykh, he will open for you his heart, then you are there. You are welcome. That is why Allah said neither my earth nor my heavens contain me but the heart of my believer contains me. He will show you that illuminated heart that Allah put in the heart of the Shaykh in order you see that ma'rifat.
So all these knowledge he will show you in his heart and that is why it is obligated on you to learn and to have experience and to follow and to be a resident in the hear of the Shaykh, to be an inhabitant in the heart of the Shaykh. To live there. That is why rabitah is important. That is the rope that connects you with Shaykh and muraqabah is to become aware of the knowledge in the heart. These knowledges don't come from reading papers or is it 'ilm al awraq, the knowledge of papers? The real knowledge comes thru al-mumarrisa wal tumaris, knowledge, consistency and to become an expert by having more experience in what you need, and all these need patience, if you are not patient in the face of boredom, worry and … patience is needed that is why Allah's name is as-Sabur. With patience you will achieve all your goals and expectation. It is said as-sabaru miftahu al-faraj, the patience is key to success, relief, opening.
You have to be patient also to what your Shaykh is showing you. He knows the best drugs and pills that are needed for you. Every patient has a different disease and needs a different drug when he goes to doctor.
Every patient will be given a special drug, means awrad that is necessary for you to go through that. He will give your ego, that kind of drug, but not until you become desperate that I am failing. He wants to hear from you, o I failed. I surrender. Don't become like I failed, I will throw myself in akhira. The failure has to teach you to surrender. O my lord I failed. Whatever I do I failed.
There was a student of Sayyidina Jamaluddin al-Ghumuqi al-Husayni, he came to Shaykh for his dunya rizq, asking what I have to do. Whatever thing he touches, he fails. He said I have something very easy good for you, I have maybe 500 sheep and goats, take them to mountain and graze them. He said "that is easy." Then he takes them in morning and brings them back in the evening. Then Jumah comes. He says, "O it is a holiday," and he slaughters ten and gives the meat to the poor. Monday comes, it is an important day, so he slaughters some more sheep and gives out the meat. On nisf-Sha`ban, he slaughters 100. On the 27th of Rajab he slaughters some more. Eid comes, he slaughters another 100.
In one year he had slaughtered all of them. He came to his Shaykh saying, "all finished." He said "What do you mean finished? At least they must have reproduced." But no, he slaughtered them all. O my Shaykh I failed. He surrendered. He knew he failed. He did not leave his prayers. He was slaughtering to give to poor to eat. But he realized that with that he still needs a a lot. What we need then. We need to face our failure by surrendering your lord.
What did imam Sayyidina ash-shafi say? He said, "be patient with your teacher when he avoids you or gives you a bad look or when he is not giving you attention. Tool al-jafa." He doesn't look at you, as if he is avoiding you. So mureeds say, why Shaykh is avoiding us. What should you do? Fasbir. Be patient.
There must be a wisdom here. He is trying to teach you, I am avoiding you, you are nothing. Many people want Shaykh to invite to his table when he eats. He is only inviting some people not others. Why he is not inviting me, I am not rich. he wants you to bring your desire down, to destroy your ego. The ego wants to be respected.
Wasbir ala tool al-jafa min mu'alim. Fa inna al rasookh al' ilma fee nafaratihi. The real knowledge that is deeply rooted, like the mountains, as we call them pegs, for balancing dunya, so the knowledge is the pegs, rooted very deep between his nafaraat, his ways of treating you, not focusing on you directly, when you feel it is as if you have not been nicely treated. Why he is not saying salam to me, why he is doing that? That is the crossfire, when he does not treat you well. Why he has to treat you well? When you are coming to learn and be polished. You are coming to get crossfire and polished. Whoever does not taste one hour from the Shaykh, will drink the humility of ignorance all of his life.
When the Shaykh is avoiding and not giving you attention there is the knowledge. If you miss that point, you miss all your life.
That is why Imam ash-Shafi'i used to go to study with granddaughter of Prophet Sayyida Nafisa. She would go to his house on the way to Salaat al-Fajr and study with her tafsir. In her house is a grave and every day she recites three hours of Holy Qur'an in that grave to give baraka to that grave,
Whoever missed learning thru his youth, when you are young you can learn. Don't come at last moment of life and say, now I am coming
وَجَاوَزْنَا بِبَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ الْبَحْرَ فَأَتْبَعَهُمْ فِرْعَوْنُ وَجُنُودُهُ بَغْيًا وَعَدْوًا حَتَّى إِذَا أَدْرَكَهُ الْغَرَقُ قَالَ آمَنتُ أَنَّهُ لا إِلِـهَ إِلاَّ الَّذِي آمَنَتْ بِهِ بَنُو إِسْرَائِيلَ وَأَنَاْ مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ
آلآنَ وَقَدْ عَصَيْتَ قَبْلُ وَكُنتَ مِنَ الْمُفْسِدِينَ
Wa jawazna bi-banee isra'eela al-bahra fa atba'ahum fir'awnu wa junooduhu baghyan wa 'adwan hatta idha adrakahu al-gharaqu qaala aamantu annahu laa ilaaha illa alladhee aamanat bihi banoo isra'eela wa ana mina'l-muslimeen.
We took the Children of Israel across the sea: Pharaoh and his hosts followed them in insolence and spite. At length, when overwhelmed with the flood, he said: "I believe that there is no god except Him Whom the Children of Israel believe in: I am of those who submit (to Allah in Islam)."
(It was said to him): "Ah now!- But a little while before, wast thou in rebellion!- and thou didst mischief (and violence)! Surah Yunus 10:90 – 91.
Now you are repenting now when I am drowning in the ocean. Allah said:
فَالْيَوْمَ نُنَجِّيكَ بِبَدَنِكَ لِتَكُونَ لِمَنْ خَلْفَكَ آيَةً وَإِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّنَ النَّاسِ عَنْ آيَاتِنَا لَغَافِلُونَ
Fa'l-yawma nunajjeeka bi-badanika li-takoona li-man khalfaka ayatan wa inna katheeran mina 'n-nasi 'an ayatina laghafiloon.
"This day shall We save thee in the body, that thou mayest be a sign to those who come after thee! but verily, many among mankind are heedless of Our Signs!"
I am going to save your body as a sign to the people after you. He said, "I believe in what the people of Bani Isra'il believe." Surah Yunus: 10:92.
So that is why Imam Shafi'i said, "Whoever does not get learning in his youth say four takbirs over him. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar - that one is dead, his heart is like wood, no benefit coming out of him."
Hayata al-fata w'Allahi bil-'ilmi wa't-tuqa
The life of a youth[2], I am swearing to you by Allah, is by knowledge and by piety.
If that knowledge and piety that young person brought in his early life, there is no consideration to that person's body that person is zero.
If you follow that and be patient, Allah will open for you and inayatullah. Allah's care comes to you, reeh as-siba - the wind of youth that is specially in Paradise and it will come to dunya and take you to the Mercy of Allah swt.
That is why al 'ilm bi't-ta'alam w'al-hilm bi't-tahalam. Learning is by being taught and Forbearance is by forebearing.
'Ilmu fee as-saghar ka'l-naqshi 'ala al-hajar - The knowledge acquired in youth is like engraving on stones.
They sculpt a picture on stones. That early knowledge is like that.
Sayyidina '`Ali (r) said:
Man 'alaamanee harfan sirtu lahu 'abdan - Whoever taught me one letter I became a servant to him.
That is the discipline and respect of tassawuf, that is the discipline that the Prophet taught to humanity. And 'ilm is very very important. That is why when the people of Isra'il asked their Prophet to send them a king, in the time of the people of Isra'il, there were Prophet but prophets never did politics, never entered into a fight they are only messengers, only giving a teaching.
Only Sayyidina Muhammad was wrapping spirituality and Shari'ah to build an Islamic state to build both wings, to carry both wings.
In the time of Bani Israel, prophets were prophets only, they don't do anything else. Kings were doing the politics.
So in the time of Bani Israel, a lot of tyrants were around killing them and killing their Prophet. So they came to their Prophet, ask Allah to send a king so we may fight in the way of Allah to throw tyranny. He said, if I do that are you sure you are going to fight or you will run away. They said we will fight. He said if not you will be in problem. So what happened. Allah sent Talut. His name was Shemuel, Samuel. He was Shemuel that they asked to ask Allah to send a king and Allah sent Talut on them. They came to him and said how you sent Talut, we don't accept him. How you don't accept him? You came to me asking my intercession. They came to their Prophet asking intercession. For Shemuel there is intercession and for Prophet Muhammad there is not?
وَقَالَ لَهُمْ نَبِيُّهُمْ إِنَّ اللّهَ قَدْ بَعَثَ لَكُمْ طَالُوتَ مَلِكًا قَالُوَاْ أَنَّى يَكُونُ لَهُ الْمُلْكُ عَلَيْنَا وَنَحْنُ أَحَقُّ بِالْمُلْكِ مِنْهُ وَلَمْ يُؤْتَ سَعَةً مِّنَ الْمَالِ قَالَ إِنَّ اللّهَ اصْطَفَاهُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَزَادَهُ بَسْطَةً فِي الْعِلْمِ وَالْجِسْمِ وَاللّهُ يُؤْتِي مُلْكَهُ مَن يَشَاء وَاللّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الْمَلإِ مِن بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ مِن بَعْدِ مُوسَى إِذْ قَالُواْ لِنَبِيٍّ لَّهُمُ ابْعَثْ لَنَا مَلِكًا نُّقَاتِلْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللّهِ قَالَ هَلْ عَسَيْتُمْ إِن كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْقِتَالُ أَلاَّ تُقَاتِلُواْ قَالُواْ وَمَا لَنَا أَلاَّ نُقَاتِلَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللّهِ وَقَدْ أُخْرِجْنَا مِن دِيَارِنَا وَأَبْنَآئِنَا فَلَمَّا كُتِبَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْقِتَالُ تَوَلَّوْاْ إِلاَّ قَلِيلاً مِّنْهُمْ وَاللّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِالظَّالِمِينَ
Alam tara ila al-malai min banee israeela min ba'di moosa ith qaloo li nabiyyin lahumu ib'ath lana malikan nuqaatil fee sabeeli Allahi qaala hal 'asaytum in kutiba 'alaykumu alqitalu allaa tuqaatiloo qaloo wa maa lana allaa nuqatila fee sabeeli Allahi wa qad ukhrijna min diyarina wa abna'ina fa lamma kutiba 'alayhimu al-qitaalu tawallaw illa qaleelan minhum w'Allahu 'aleemun bidh-dhalimeena Wa qaala lahum nabiyyuhum inna Allaha qad ba'atha lakum taloota malikan qaloo anna yakoonu lahu al-mulku 'alayna wa nahnu ahaqqu bil-mulki minhu wa lam yuta sa'atan mina'l-maali qaala inna Allaha istafahu 'alaykum wa zaadahu bastatan fi'l-'ilmi wa'l-jismi w'Allahu yutee mulkahu man yasha'u w'Allahu wasi'un 'aleemun
Hast thou not Turned thy vision to the Chiefs of the Children of Israel after (the time of) Moses? they said to a prophet (That was) among them: "Appoint for us a king, that we May fight in the cause of Allah." He said: "Is it not possible, if ye were commanded to fight, that that ye will not fight?" They said: "How could we refuse to fight in the cause of Allah, seeing that we were turned out of our homes and our families?" but when they were commanded to fight, they turned back, except a small band among them. But Allah Has full knowledge of those who do wrong.
Their Prophet said to them: "(Allah) hath appointed Talut as king over you." They said: "How can he exercise authority over us when we are better fitted than he to exercise authority, and he is not even gifted, with wealth in abundance?" He said: "(Allah) hath Chosen him above you, and hath gifted him abundantly with knowledge and bodily prowess: Allah Granteth His authority to whom He pleaseth. Allah careth for all, and He knoweth all things." Suratu'l-Baqara: 2: 246-247
Hal asaytum in kutib alaykum al-qitaal ala tuqaatilu.
They objected to Talut. Why are you objecting? He was a huge man and Allah gave him knowledge. Sayyidina Mahdi is [also] huge. Mawlana Shaykh and GrandShaykh say, "His hands go under his knees." And at his hands at the wrist you can put 14 beans across. His hands are enormous.
One time, two or three times GrandShaykh showed me Sayyidina Mahdi, he is huge.
Huge in body and huge in knowledge Talut.
So Sayyidina Mahdi is coming with body and with knowledge. With the interpretation of Holy Qur'an with permission of Allah and Prophet.
So if you follow, you follow - it is up to you.
فَلَمَّا فَصَلَ طَالُوتُ بِالْجُنُودِ قَالَ إِنَّ اللّهَ مُبْتَلِيكُم بِنَهَرٍ فَمَن شَرِبَ مِنْهُ فَلَيْسَ مِنِّي وَمَن لَّمْ يَطْعَمْهُ فَإِنَّهُ مِنِّي إِلاَّ مَنِ اغْتَرَفَ غُرْفَةً بِيَدِهِ فَشَرِبُواْ مِنْهُ إِلاَّ قَلِيلاً مِّنْهُمْ فَلَمَّا جَاوَزَهُ هُوَ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ مَعَهُ قَالُواْ لاَ طَاقَةَ لَنَا الْيَوْمَ بِجَالُوتَ وَجُنودِهِ قَالَ الَّذِينَ يَظُنُّونَ أَنَّهُم مُّلاَقُو اللّهِ كَم مِّن فِئَةٍ قَلِيلَةٍ غَلَبَتْ فِئَةً كَثِيرَةً بِإِذْنِ اللّهِ وَاللّهُ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ
Fa lamma fasala talootu bil-junoodi qaala inna Allaha mubtaleekum bi naharin faman shariba minhu falaysa minnee waman lam yat'amhu fainnahu minnee illa mani ightarafa ghurfatan bi-yadihi fashariboo minhu illa qaleelan minhum fa lamma jawazahu huwa walladheena amanoo ma'ahu qaaloo laa taaqata lana al-yawma bi-jaloota wa junoodihi qaala alladheena yathunnoona annahum mulaaqoo Allahi kam min f'iatin qaleelatin ghalabat fi'atan katheeratan bidhnillahi wallahu ma'a as-saabireen.
When Talut set forth with the armies, he said: "(Allah) will test you at the stream: if any drinks of its water, He goes not with my army: Only those who taste not of it go with me: A mere sip out of the hand is excused." but they all drank of it, except a few. When they crossed the river,- He and the faithful ones with him,- they said: "This day We cannot cope with Goliath and his forces." but those who were convinced that they must meet Allah, said: "How oft, by Allah's will, Hath a small force vanquished a big one? Allah is with those who steadfastly persevere." Suratu'l-Baqara: 2:249
Before [we reach the enemy] I am passing by a river. Don't drink from that river except one gharfan, one handful. So most of them drank and quenched their thirst. Very few took only one handful. Those are the ones that he kept and the rest he did not want. Those who are surrendering are going to be supported. The rest who are not obedient, you don't need to care about them, there is nothing coming out of them. They are not faithful to you so they might not be faithful to Talut, when you are fighting the tyrant. Most of the army left.[3]
So Dawud killed Jalut with the slingshot. How did he finish him with that small rock? Because they listened to what Talut said. That is because Talut has knowledge, heavenly knowledge, Gnosticism, 'ilm al marifa, 'ilm al-adhwaq, 'ilm al-haqa'iq.
'Ilm al-qudrah an-nuraniyya. Where Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani was using that illuminate power in his dua where he said, Allahuma innee asaluka bis-sirr in-nour adh-dhaati. O Allahuma I am asking you by the secret of the Light of the Essence.
Like the sun continuously illuminating, millions of tons it is using in burning every day and yet going to be going for millions of years. How/ it is Allah's qudrah.
Ya Allah bis-sirr adh-dhaat wa bi dhaat as-sirr - with the Secret of the Essence and Essence of the Secret. These are codes by which Allah opens.
And with the Essence of the Secret - Huwa anta wa anta huwa. He which is You and You which is He.
Allah said, "I was a hidden treasure and I wished to be known, I created creation." That hidden treasure is You.
Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani put these names in a combination, the du'a al-wird al-jalala. Asmaullah al-jalala. The majestic and beautiful names of Allah and His Attributes. Allah gave him from the reality of Sayyidina Muhammad and gave all his anbiya and awliya.
Wa min Allah at-tawfiq bi-hurmatil fatiha.
[1] Abode: related to Arabic abadan? Bodhi Tree?
[2] Fata – noble youth - Root word for knight in Arabic. La fata illa 'Aliyyun wa la sayfun illa Dhul-fiqaar – there is no noble youth except 'Ali and no sword except Dhul-Fiqaar.
[3] Those who only took handful were a handful, yet they proved to be a handful to Jalut and his soldiers, and with one handful, Sayyidina Dawud slew Jalut, as Sayyidina Muhammad with one handful dispersed the forces of Quraysh at Badr. That is the Hand about which Allah said, wa yadahu'lladhee yabtashu bihi.
About Mawlana Shaykh Hisham 2005 Khalwat
Audhu billahi, Audhu billahi, Audhu billahi min ash-Shaytan ir-rajeem
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Raheem
Nawaytu 'l-arba'een, nawaytu 'l-'itikaaf, nawaytu 'l-khalwah, nawaytu 'r-riyaada, nawaytu 's-salook, nawaytu 'l-'uzlat lillahi ta'ala al-'adheem fee hadha 'l-masjid.
We continue where we stopped last session and we say that always ask support from Allah swt and fight worriness, qalak, to be worried. Fight that and fight failure by the power that Allah will give you and be careful of the monitoring of shaytan, he is always trying to find the best time to catch you by your feet and throw you into dunya's desires.
He found the best time for Sayyidina Adam by saying
فَوَسْوَسَ إِلَيْهِ الشَّيْطَانُ قَالَ يَا آدَمُ هَلْ أَدُلُّكَ عَلَى شَجَرَةِ الْخُلْدِ وَمُلْكٍ لَّا يَبْلَى
فَأَكَلَا مِنْهَا فَبَدَتْ لَهُمَا سَوْآتُهُمَا وَطَفِقَا يَخْصِفَانِ عَلَيْهِمَا مِن وَرَقِ الْجَنَّةِ وَعَصَى آدَمُ رَبَّهُ فَغَوَى
ثُمَّ اجْتَبَاهُ رَبُّهُ فَتَابَ عَلَيْهِ وَهَدَى
قَالَ اهْبِطَا مِنْهَا جَمِيعًا بَعْضُكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ عَدُوٌّ فَإِمَّا يَأْتِيَنَّكُم مِّنِّي هُدًى فَمَنِ اتَّبَعَ هُدَايَ فَلَا يَضِلُّ وَلَا يَشْقَى
Fa waswasa ilayhi ash-shaytanu qaala ya adamu hal adulluka 'ala shajarati al-khuldi wa mulkin la yabla Fa akala minha fa badat lahuma sawatuhuma watafiqa yakhsifani 'alayhima min waraqi al-jannati wa 'asa adamu rabbahu faghawa. Thumma ijtabahu rabbuhu fataba 'alayhi wa hada. Qala ihbita minha jamee'an ba'dukum li-ba'din 'aduwwun fa imma yatiyannakum minnee hudan famani ittaba'a hudaya fala yadillu wa laa yashqa.
But Satan whispered evil to him: he said, "O Adam! shall I lead thee to the Tree of Eternity and to a kingdom that never decays?" In the result, they both ate of the tree, and so their nakedness appeared to them: they began to sew together, for their covering, leaves from the Garden: thus did Adam disobey his Lord, and allow himself to be seduced. But his Lord chose him (for His Grace): He turned to him, and gave him Guidance. He said: "Get ye down, both of you,- all together, from the Garden, with enmity one to another: but if, as is sure, there comes to you Guidance from Me, whosoever follows My Guidance, will not lose his way, nor fall into misery. Surah TaHa: 20: 120 123
Iblees, Satan, whispered in the ear of Sayyidna Adam, in his heart. He was looking for the right time and the right moment. He said "I will guide you to the abode[1] tree, the tree from which you eat will make you eternal."
What happened when he ate from the tree? All the veils that were veiling him from what you cannot show from your body, araha, he removed all these beautiful and majestic veils that kept him from being naked completely out. That means when you listen to shaytan will be completely taken out, those beautiful dresses you achieve from prayers and worship, that Allah dresses you with, all of them will go. Then he looks naked in the eyes of Adam, in his own eyes, not in the eyes of angels. Allah showed him that what you did is going to make you naked. What did he do? He was taking the leaves of the Paradise and trying to cover his private parts. That is he was ashamed to be seen with his ayb, his sin. How to cover that sin, he was taking the leaves of the trees in paradise, it means he was repenting.
Those leaves are a description of something that is eternal, how long it is kept in Allah's hands.
Getting those leaves means to get the heavenly power to cover himself. That is why Allah ajtabahu. Then Allah took him back from the hands of Iblees, because he found that repentance in his heart, not like Iblees.
He guided him to the right way but Allah's Irada, Will, is to send him to earth. That is to teach human beings the suffering of this life, by sending them to this life because of the sin that was committed in paradise. Even though Allah accepted him back and accepted his repentance and forgave him, but still He sent him dunya, and he was carrying the light of Sayyidina Muhammad. That light was moving in the forehead of the Adam and was going like a turbine, running and making tahlil, tasbih, tahmid and …
That Is the light that the angels saw and they could not control themselves and went into sajda. Only Satan did not go into sajda, he though his light is better. He did not want to surrender as he thought he is going to be al-Mustafa, the Chosen One, he thought he would carry that light. Out of envy and jealousy - not only of Adam but of the Prophet (s), he was jealous and did not make sajda. That is Allah's will also, the wisdom of it Allah knows. That disobedience has a hikmat there, to leave Satan to the end of the world.
These kinds of secrets, awliyaullah, thru seclusions, and rabitah to their Shaykh and showing their complete helplessness to their master, these masters will throw into their hearts these kinds of meanings. These kinds of meanings doesn't come to everyone who is writing from today's lecturers, it is something that is deep that only opens to hearts of awliya from the Prophet and awliya open to their followers
So shaytan is trying his best to monitor you and as soon as he finds a way to catch your leg he will catch and try to dump into desires of dunya away from akhira.
Inna an-ni'amat mawsulatan bish-shukr. The favors are connected to shukr, you cannot get ni'amat without thanking Allah. That is why you have to say 500 times ash-shukru lillahi and 500 time alhamdulillah
And the shukr is connected with increase, to give more. And Allah said in Holy Qur'an, when you thank me I give you more.
So it means that if you thank Allah and leave dunya, not only the bad desires of dunya, you want to be rich it is ok, you want to work hard it is ok, but give it in the way of Allah. Raise your family nicely, raise your children nicely and remember that Allah has a share in your money as it is not your money. Then your dunya becomes a connection to mazeed. And what is mazeed? It is akhira. That is one of the names of akhira, mazeed. There that mazeed is continuous, it is never going to be less or the same, but is continuously accumulating higher and higher, more and more.
So if your 'amal was good, fal mazeedu takun al-jannah. Increase will be your paradise.
وِمِنْهُم مَّن يَقُولُ رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
Wa minhum man yaqoolu rabbana atina fee ad-dunya hasanatan wafee al-akhirati hasanatan waqina 'adhaaba an-naari
And there are men who say: "Our Lord! Give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and defend us from the torment of the Fire!" Suratu 'l-Baqara: 2:201
rabbana atina feed-dunya hasanatan wa fil-akhira hasanatan.
O Allah give us hasanatin in dunya and hasanat in akhira. So it is a bridge, the dunya is a bridge to protect you from 'adhab an'naar hellfire. That means to protect you from being away form the presence of Allah. There is no hellfire for believers, but the hellfire for believers if they are not with Prophet, if they are not in the company of alladheena ana`amAllahu alayhim min an-nabiyyeen, was-siddiqeen…
To be away from prophets, trustworthy people, away form martyrs, away from sincere pious people, that is inside going to be like a fire inside us.
So Allah gave you both, rabbana atina fi'd-dunya hasanatan wa fil-akhira hasanatan wa qina 'adhab an'naar… so Allah is giving you both. So don't reject either. Take what Allah gave to you. Don't say "I want dunya, not akhira."
However if your amal was that which you followed the desire of the self, because you got bored, as we mentioned the 3 bad characters, al-malal, boredom. If you get bored you are going to worry, al-qalak, then you worry about what you are doing and you end up in failure. Boredom, worry and failure, when you entered into these three levels and you are not patient on carrying all kinds of difficulties and opposites and troubles, crossfire is a talk shows. One from here and one from there. There is a crossfire in the self. One coming from shaytan, whispering and one coming from heavenly sources. You are in the fire. Now if you are not able to be patient and understand where you have to follow you are going to fall into what, the hands of shaytan. And you are going to get mazeed increase, in that if you fall in the hands and follow Shaytan. Both sides you get increase, dunya or akhira.
If you thank shaytan he will give you more hellfire. If you thank Allah he will give you more of akhira.
Some people thank shaytan, they are worshippers of shaytan. That is a new movement, devil-worshipper. He is going to give them mazeed also, and that is his increase, the fire. This time the mazeed for you is the fire.
يَوْمَ نَقُولُ لِجَهَنَّمَ هَلِ امْتَلَأْتِ وَتَقُولُ هَلْ مِن مَّزِيدٍ
Yawma naqoolu li jahannama hali imtalati wataqoolu hal min mazeed.
One Day We will ask Hell, "Art thou filled to the full?" It will say, "Are there any more (to come)?" Surah Qaf: 50:30
Allah swt asks hellfire, "are you full, are you happy," and Hell will say "no, give me more." So if you follow Shaytan you get more. Allah saying in Holy Qur'an, "O hellfire are you satisfied?" and it replies, "No, is there more?" Then I will have more wood to burn. If you read surat al-Hadeed, how Allah described , as the Prophet looked in Isra and Mi'raj, and saw women hung by ropes from their breasts with burning pus which was eating them from top to bottom, also similarly men. So the description in the Holy Qur'an of hellfire, makes you to go nuts, (I don't like to use that word.) So be careful O human beings, where you are going in this life.
Therefore you have to stick to knowledge and Gnosticism in order to prevent yourself from falling into the desires of this dunya. And to do that you need a guidance. Allah sent prophets to guide the ummah. And from the inheritors of the secrets of the Prophet there are many guided, that is why you must accompany a perfect Shaykh, mutamarasa fee funoon al-`uloom, knowledge of Shari'ah and knowledge of tariqat. Anyone says I only follow tariqat not shariah, that is wrong. The Shaykh must be complete, all kinds of artistic experiences. 'Ilm ash- Shari'ah and 'ilm at-tariqat is an art, not like a parrot reciting and reading. This scholar said this and this one said that. Under each line is a footnote. Not he read all these footnotes but he is like an artist able to pull out all the knowledge of Shari'ah and tariqat.
And he has vast awareness of what he is advising you in order not to be an easy target or easy corpse to shaytan. And he shows you the way of and guide you and direct to the real way of istiqamah and guidance and he will take you thru a journey, don't think that journey is going to be an easy journey, people come to the guru and it is easy journey, they have money in pockets and if they don't find food, they go to restaurants.
One day a lady came to Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, one of the biggest awliya in his time and in our time. He saw all these students, 80 years of age, 20, 30 40, and all sitting in adab in front of their Shaykh. And when time came to eat, there were servants who were assigned to prepare the food. And in front of each one a huge rooster, a huge one, not like today they have in production artificial farms where each rooster is like a turkey, 25, 30 lbs. One in front of each . As soon as the Shaykh make du`a, each one eats that huge turkey, and nothing left.
She said, "that is good place for my son, if he east half and brings me half, that is good." She went to Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani and said, "I want my son to be one of my students." And he said, "ok." He was young. He saw his heart was clean not following shaytan, so he took him.
So she came after one week to check her son. She was thinking he will be perfect and have that rooster in front of him and snacks at night. People it is not enough to eat their food, they have big bags of snacks during day and night.
She went and did not find her son. She asked, "where is my son?" They said, "he is in the cellar." She went down and thinking, "O he has his rooster, and he is eating and saving some for me." She found her son and in this seven days it might be lost 7 kilos. He had with him one piece of bread and seven olives. She said, "What is this!?" He said "This is what I am eating in 24 hours."
She went to Shaykh and said, "O Sayyidi, what is this I brought my son to get what others are eating, 25-30 pound rooster/ turkey."
You cannot get akhira without leaving dunya. People eat today because of their desire. The desire is from mouth to throat. As soon as it enters it goes to esophagus and form there no taste. That is why in the hospital they feed some patients by tubes which go directly to stomach. They don't need to go through the mouth.
That is why the Prophet said, "Whoever can guarantee me what is between his jaws and what is between his legs, I will guarantee him Paradise." That is the problem. Everyone is running after these two things, the tongue, to backbite and to eat and private parts to down that every you can do. They collect money, collect buildings for their desires, is there anything else.
So the Shaykh will guide you to tariq ar-rashaad, the way of protection, the way of istiqamah. Like the Alif is standing up, the way that takes you to Allah, way of rashaad, means way of maturity. Through a very difficult, what you call it when they put prisoners in prison, for life, for labor. Labor camps. He takes you thru a journey of labor camps. Like we explained that boy with say. Abdul Qadir Jilani. Who today is doing labor camps? Shaykhs guide you thru that labor camp. It is very difficult work, like in time of pharaoh, and they are carrying the stones and being whipped, falling down and being whipped until they fall and die. The Shaykh his observing you. He said I was observing you in these 40 days and the extra days of salook and I was worried that you are going to die. I was monitoring and worried you reach that point. Seclusion is not easy, but sometimes, people sit there for years and as they go in as they go out, thru their beliefs.
Thru these labor camps teach you how to cross from shat ad-dunya to shat al-akhira, passing thru that stormy ocean that in front of you wants to swallow you, like the tornado Katrina, and Rita. I don't know how they call them. Like these very huge tornadoes that are in the ocean and it is an ocean of tornado and you have to pass and to be safe the Shaykh knows where to move thru the tornado in order to avoid being destroyed.
So he takes you from an ocean that has no beginning and no end, you have to complete 'alayk al muthabar, and continue working and going and to learn what you are going to see thru your journey until you reach the realities and truth and ma`rifat li tustikhraj minhu albahr almuheet. They will give you power in the face of these tornadoes the of power to go and extract from these realities. The tornado is no on the bottom, it is on the top. If you go deep in the ocean it is calm although it affects some layers at the top.
And that ocean that stormy ocean that he showed in front of you, when you reach the bottom and extract these knowledges, it is the heart of the Shaykh. He will throw you in his heart where you will be very peaceful and realized, you realize it is your Shaykh, he will open for you his heart, then you are there. You are welcome. That is why Allah said neither my earth nor my heavens contain me but the heart of my believer contains me. He will show you that illuminated heart that Allah put in the heart of the Shaykh in order you see that ma'rifat.
So all these knowledge he will show you in his heart and that is why it is obligated on you to learn and to have experience and to follow and to be a resident in the hear of the Shaykh, to be an inhabitant in the heart of the Shaykh. To live there. That is why rabitah is important. That is the rope that connects you with Shaykh and muraqabah is to become aware of the knowledge in the heart. These knowledges don't come from reading papers or is it 'ilm al awraq, the knowledge of papers? The real knowledge comes thru al-mumarrisa wal tumaris, knowledge, consistency and to become an expert by having more experience in what you need, and all these need patience, if you are not patient in the face of boredom, worry and … patience is needed that is why Allah's name is as-Sabur. With patience you will achieve all your goals and expectation. It is said as-sabaru miftahu al-faraj, the patience is key to success, relief, opening.
You have to be patient also to what your Shaykh is showing you. He knows the best drugs and pills that are needed for you. Every patient has a different disease and needs a different drug when he goes to doctor.
Every patient will be given a special drug, means awrad that is necessary for you to go through that. He will give your ego, that kind of drug, but not until you become desperate that I am failing. He wants to hear from you, o I failed. I surrender. Don't become like I failed, I will throw myself in akhira. The failure has to teach you to surrender. O my lord I failed. Whatever I do I failed.
There was a student of Sayyidina Jamaluddin al-Ghumuqi al-Husayni, he came to Shaykh for his dunya rizq, asking what I have to do. Whatever thing he touches, he fails. He said I have something very easy good for you, I have maybe 500 sheep and goats, take them to mountain and graze them. He said "that is easy." Then he takes them in morning and brings them back in the evening. Then Jumah comes. He says, "O it is a holiday," and he slaughters ten and gives the meat to the poor. Monday comes, it is an important day, so he slaughters some more sheep and gives out the meat. On nisf-Sha`ban, he slaughters 100. On the 27th of Rajab he slaughters some more. Eid comes, he slaughters another 100.
In one year he had slaughtered all of them. He came to his Shaykh saying, "all finished." He said "What do you mean finished? At least they must have reproduced." But no, he slaughtered them all. O my Shaykh I failed. He surrendered. He knew he failed. He did not leave his prayers. He was slaughtering to give to poor to eat. But he realized that with that he still needs a a lot. What we need then. We need to face our failure by surrendering your lord.
What did imam Sayyidina ash-shafi say? He said, "be patient with your teacher when he avoids you or gives you a bad look or when he is not giving you attention. Tool al-jafa." He doesn't look at you, as if he is avoiding you. So mureeds say, why Shaykh is avoiding us. What should you do? Fasbir. Be patient.
There must be a wisdom here. He is trying to teach you, I am avoiding you, you are nothing. Many people want Shaykh to invite to his table when he eats. He is only inviting some people not others. Why he is not inviting me, I am not rich. he wants you to bring your desire down, to destroy your ego. The ego wants to be respected.
Wasbir ala tool al-jafa min mu'alim. Fa inna al rasookh al' ilma fee nafaratihi. The real knowledge that is deeply rooted, like the mountains, as we call them pegs, for balancing dunya, so the knowledge is the pegs, rooted very deep between his nafaraat, his ways of treating you, not focusing on you directly, when you feel it is as if you have not been nicely treated. Why he is not saying salam to me, why he is doing that? That is the crossfire, when he does not treat you well. Why he has to treat you well? When you are coming to learn and be polished. You are coming to get crossfire and polished. Whoever does not taste one hour from the Shaykh, will drink the humility of ignorance all of his life.
When the Shaykh is avoiding and not giving you attention there is the knowledge. If you miss that point, you miss all your life.
That is why Imam ash-Shafi'i used to go to study with granddaughter of Prophet Sayyida Nafisa. She would go to his house on the way to Salaat al-Fajr and study with her tafsir. In her house is a grave and every day she recites three hours of Holy Qur'an in that grave to give baraka to that grave,
Whoever missed learning thru his youth, when you are young you can learn. Don't come at last moment of life and say, now I am coming
وَجَاوَزْنَا بِبَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ الْبَحْرَ فَأَتْبَعَهُمْ فِرْعَوْنُ وَجُنُودُهُ بَغْيًا وَعَدْوًا حَتَّى إِذَا أَدْرَكَهُ الْغَرَقُ قَالَ آمَنتُ أَنَّهُ لا إِلِـهَ إِلاَّ الَّذِي آمَنَتْ بِهِ بَنُو إِسْرَائِيلَ وَأَنَاْ مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ
آلآنَ وَقَدْ عَصَيْتَ قَبْلُ وَكُنتَ مِنَ الْمُفْسِدِينَ
Wa jawazna bi-banee isra'eela al-bahra fa atba'ahum fir'awnu wa junooduhu baghyan wa 'adwan hatta idha adrakahu al-gharaqu qaala aamantu annahu laa ilaaha illa alladhee aamanat bihi banoo isra'eela wa ana mina'l-muslimeen.
We took the Children of Israel across the sea: Pharaoh and his hosts followed them in insolence and spite. At length, when overwhelmed with the flood, he said: "I believe that there is no god except Him Whom the Children of Israel believe in: I am of those who submit (to Allah in Islam)."
(It was said to him): "Ah now!- But a little while before, wast thou in rebellion!- and thou didst mischief (and violence)! Surah Yunus 10:90 – 91.
Now you are repenting now when I am drowning in the ocean. Allah said:
فَالْيَوْمَ نُنَجِّيكَ بِبَدَنِكَ لِتَكُونَ لِمَنْ خَلْفَكَ آيَةً وَإِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّنَ النَّاسِ عَنْ آيَاتِنَا لَغَافِلُونَ
Fa'l-yawma nunajjeeka bi-badanika li-takoona li-man khalfaka ayatan wa inna katheeran mina 'n-nasi 'an ayatina laghafiloon.
"This day shall We save thee in the body, that thou mayest be a sign to those who come after thee! but verily, many among mankind are heedless of Our Signs!"
I am going to save your body as a sign to the people after you. He said, "I believe in what the people of Bani Isra'il believe." Surah Yunus: 10:92.
So that is why Imam Shafi'i said, "Whoever does not get learning in his youth say four takbirs over him. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar - that one is dead, his heart is like wood, no benefit coming out of him."
Hayata al-fata w'Allahi bil-'ilmi wa't-tuqa
The life of a youth[2], I am swearing to you by Allah, is by knowledge and by piety.
If that knowledge and piety that young person brought in his early life, there is no consideration to that person's body that person is zero.
If you follow that and be patient, Allah will open for you and inayatullah. Allah's care comes to you, reeh as-siba - the wind of youth that is specially in Paradise and it will come to dunya and take you to the Mercy of Allah swt.
That is why al 'ilm bi't-ta'alam w'al-hilm bi't-tahalam. Learning is by being taught and Forbearance is by forebearing.
'Ilmu fee as-saghar ka'l-naqshi 'ala al-hajar - The knowledge acquired in youth is like engraving on stones.
They sculpt a picture on stones. That early knowledge is like that.
Sayyidina '`Ali (r) said:
Man 'alaamanee harfan sirtu lahu 'abdan - Whoever taught me one letter I became a servant to him.
That is the discipline and respect of tassawuf, that is the discipline that the Prophet taught to humanity. And 'ilm is very very important. That is why when the people of Isra'il asked their Prophet to send them a king, in the time of the people of Isra'il, there were Prophet but prophets never did politics, never entered into a fight they are only messengers, only giving a teaching.
Only Sayyidina Muhammad was wrapping spirituality and Shari'ah to build an Islamic state to build both wings, to carry both wings.
In the time of Bani Israel, prophets were prophets only, they don't do anything else. Kings were doing the politics.
So in the time of Bani Israel, a lot of tyrants were around killing them and killing their Prophet. So they came to their Prophet, ask Allah to send a king so we may fight in the way of Allah to throw tyranny. He said, if I do that are you sure you are going to fight or you will run away. They said we will fight. He said if not you will be in problem. So what happened. Allah sent Talut. His name was Shemuel, Samuel. He was Shemuel that they asked to ask Allah to send a king and Allah sent Talut on them. They came to him and said how you sent Talut, we don't accept him. How you don't accept him? You came to me asking my intercession. They came to their Prophet asking intercession. For Shemuel there is intercession and for Prophet Muhammad there is not?
وَقَالَ لَهُمْ نَبِيُّهُمْ إِنَّ اللّهَ قَدْ بَعَثَ لَكُمْ طَالُوتَ مَلِكًا قَالُوَاْ أَنَّى يَكُونُ لَهُ الْمُلْكُ عَلَيْنَا وَنَحْنُ أَحَقُّ بِالْمُلْكِ مِنْهُ وَلَمْ يُؤْتَ سَعَةً مِّنَ الْمَالِ قَالَ إِنَّ اللّهَ اصْطَفَاهُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَزَادَهُ بَسْطَةً فِي الْعِلْمِ وَالْجِسْمِ وَاللّهُ يُؤْتِي مُلْكَهُ مَن يَشَاء وَاللّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الْمَلإِ مِن بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ مِن بَعْدِ مُوسَى إِذْ قَالُواْ لِنَبِيٍّ لَّهُمُ ابْعَثْ لَنَا مَلِكًا نُّقَاتِلْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللّهِ قَالَ هَلْ عَسَيْتُمْ إِن كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْقِتَالُ أَلاَّ تُقَاتِلُواْ قَالُواْ وَمَا لَنَا أَلاَّ نُقَاتِلَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللّهِ وَقَدْ أُخْرِجْنَا مِن دِيَارِنَا وَأَبْنَآئِنَا فَلَمَّا كُتِبَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْقِتَالُ تَوَلَّوْاْ إِلاَّ قَلِيلاً مِّنْهُمْ وَاللّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِالظَّالِمِينَ
Alam tara ila al-malai min banee israeela min ba'di moosa ith qaloo li nabiyyin lahumu ib'ath lana malikan nuqaatil fee sabeeli Allahi qaala hal 'asaytum in kutiba 'alaykumu alqitalu allaa tuqaatiloo qaloo wa maa lana allaa nuqatila fee sabeeli Allahi wa qad ukhrijna min diyarina wa abna'ina fa lamma kutiba 'alayhimu al-qitaalu tawallaw illa qaleelan minhum w'Allahu 'aleemun bidh-dhalimeena Wa qaala lahum nabiyyuhum inna Allaha qad ba'atha lakum taloota malikan qaloo anna yakoonu lahu al-mulku 'alayna wa nahnu ahaqqu bil-mulki minhu wa lam yuta sa'atan mina'l-maali qaala inna Allaha istafahu 'alaykum wa zaadahu bastatan fi'l-'ilmi wa'l-jismi w'Allahu yutee mulkahu man yasha'u w'Allahu wasi'un 'aleemun
Hast thou not Turned thy vision to the Chiefs of the Children of Israel after (the time of) Moses? they said to a prophet (That was) among them: "Appoint for us a king, that we May fight in the cause of Allah." He said: "Is it not possible, if ye were commanded to fight, that that ye will not fight?" They said: "How could we refuse to fight in the cause of Allah, seeing that we were turned out of our homes and our families?" but when they were commanded to fight, they turned back, except a small band among them. But Allah Has full knowledge of those who do wrong.
Their Prophet said to them: "(Allah) hath appointed Talut as king over you." They said: "How can he exercise authority over us when we are better fitted than he to exercise authority, and he is not even gifted, with wealth in abundance?" He said: "(Allah) hath Chosen him above you, and hath gifted him abundantly with knowledge and bodily prowess: Allah Granteth His authority to whom He pleaseth. Allah careth for all, and He knoweth all things." Suratu'l-Baqara: 2: 246-247
Hal asaytum in kutib alaykum al-qitaal ala tuqaatilu.
They objected to Talut. Why are you objecting? He was a huge man and Allah gave him knowledge. Sayyidina Mahdi is [also] huge. Mawlana Shaykh and GrandShaykh say, "His hands go under his knees." And at his hands at the wrist you can put 14 beans across. His hands are enormous.
One time, two or three times GrandShaykh showed me Sayyidina Mahdi, he is huge.
Huge in body and huge in knowledge Talut.
So Sayyidina Mahdi is coming with body and with knowledge. With the interpretation of Holy Qur'an with permission of Allah and Prophet.
So if you follow, you follow - it is up to you.
فَلَمَّا فَصَلَ طَالُوتُ بِالْجُنُودِ قَالَ إِنَّ اللّهَ مُبْتَلِيكُم بِنَهَرٍ فَمَن شَرِبَ مِنْهُ فَلَيْسَ مِنِّي وَمَن لَّمْ يَطْعَمْهُ فَإِنَّهُ مِنِّي إِلاَّ مَنِ اغْتَرَفَ غُرْفَةً بِيَدِهِ فَشَرِبُواْ مِنْهُ إِلاَّ قَلِيلاً مِّنْهُمْ فَلَمَّا جَاوَزَهُ هُوَ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ مَعَهُ قَالُواْ لاَ طَاقَةَ لَنَا الْيَوْمَ بِجَالُوتَ وَجُنودِهِ قَالَ الَّذِينَ يَظُنُّونَ أَنَّهُم مُّلاَقُو اللّهِ كَم مِّن فِئَةٍ قَلِيلَةٍ غَلَبَتْ فِئَةً كَثِيرَةً بِإِذْنِ اللّهِ وَاللّهُ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ
Fa lamma fasala talootu bil-junoodi qaala inna Allaha mubtaleekum bi naharin faman shariba minhu falaysa minnee waman lam yat'amhu fainnahu minnee illa mani ightarafa ghurfatan bi-yadihi fashariboo minhu illa qaleelan minhum fa lamma jawazahu huwa walladheena amanoo ma'ahu qaaloo laa taaqata lana al-yawma bi-jaloota wa junoodihi qaala alladheena yathunnoona annahum mulaaqoo Allahi kam min f'iatin qaleelatin ghalabat fi'atan katheeratan bidhnillahi wallahu ma'a as-saabireen.
When Talut set forth with the armies, he said: "(Allah) will test you at the stream: if any drinks of its water, He goes not with my army: Only those who taste not of it go with me: A mere sip out of the hand is excused." but they all drank of it, except a few. When they crossed the river,- He and the faithful ones with him,- they said: "This day We cannot cope with Goliath and his forces." but those who were convinced that they must meet Allah, said: "How oft, by Allah's will, Hath a small force vanquished a big one? Allah is with those who steadfastly persevere." Suratu'l-Baqara: 2:249
Before [we reach the enemy] I am passing by a river. Don't drink from that river except one gharfan, one handful. So most of them drank and quenched their thirst. Very few took only one handful. Those are the ones that he kept and the rest he did not want. Those who are surrendering are going to be supported. The rest who are not obedient, you don't need to care about them, there is nothing coming out of them. They are not faithful to you so they might not be faithful to Talut, when you are fighting the tyrant. Most of the army left.[3]
So Dawud killed Jalut with the slingshot. How did he finish him with that small rock? Because they listened to what Talut said. That is because Talut has knowledge, heavenly knowledge, Gnosticism, 'ilm al marifa, 'ilm al-adhwaq, 'ilm al-haqa'iq.
'Ilm al-qudrah an-nuraniyya. Where Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani was using that illuminate power in his dua where he said, Allahuma innee asaluka bis-sirr in-nour adh-dhaati. O Allahuma I am asking you by the secret of the Light of the Essence.
Like the sun continuously illuminating, millions of tons it is using in burning every day and yet going to be going for millions of years. How/ it is Allah's qudrah.
Ya Allah bis-sirr adh-dhaat wa bi dhaat as-sirr - with the Secret of the Essence and Essence of the Secret. These are codes by which Allah opens.
And with the Essence of the Secret - Huwa anta wa anta huwa. He which is You and You which is He.
Allah said, "I was a hidden treasure and I wished to be known, I created creation." That hidden treasure is You.
Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani put these names in a combination, the du'a al-wird al-jalala. Asmaullah al-jalala. The majestic and beautiful names of Allah and His Attributes. Allah gave him from the reality of Sayyidina Muhammad and gave all his anbiya and awliya.
Wa min Allah at-tawfiq bi-hurmatil fatiha.
[1] Abode: related to Arabic abadan? Bodhi Tree?
[2] Fata – noble youth - Root word for knight in Arabic. La fata illa 'Aliyyun wa la sayfun illa Dhul-fiqaar – there is no noble youth except 'Ali and no sword except Dhul-Fiqaar.
[3] Those who only took handful were a handful, yet they proved to be a handful to Jalut and his soldiers, and with one handful, Sayyidina Dawud slew Jalut, as Sayyidina Muhammad with one handful dispersed the forces of Quraysh at Badr. That is the Hand about which Allah said, wa yadahu'lladhee yabtashu bihi.
Futuhat al-Khalwat
Suhbat 11-10-2005
Futuhat al-Khalwat
Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
Audhu billahi min as-shaytan ir-rajeem
Bismillahir-rahmani ir-raheem
Nawaytul arba`een, nawatul `itikaaf…
Madad ya sultanul-awliya.
In the previous session, we said that the state of witnessing is the state of Gnostics and that the light of the Prophet (s) is accumulating all these lights or gathering all this light, an-nur adh-dhaati, the light that describes the essence; it is the secret that is running into all names and attributes. So when that essence, which cannot be described by this description, but to give it an understanding, [it is similar to] when a volcano comes up, it gives all this lava and erupts and all this fire comes out – lava -- and it begins to go running and wherever it goes it melts everything; even rocks will melt. That is in order to understand. So when the light of the absolute essence comes, that light that even the Prophet (s) does not know, these lights are running into the heart and manifesting in the heart of the Prophet (s) and create all these oceans of enlightenment. Wherever these oceans of light run, it will run like a river and like the river, which polishes the rocks, the river will begin to make a shape, just as the lava where it flows creates a shape. So this light will go to awliyaullah and will run in their spirits and souls and becomes like a carrier, that carries that wali and dips him and then drowns him, like diving -- feeling the taste and diving into the buhur al-ahadiyya, the oceans of uniqueness, raising one from the taste of oneness to the taste of witnessing, as happened to Sayyidina Bilal al-Habashi (ra). This is the station of Gnostics. When you reach that station of Gnostics, these oceans will open their treasures and stores to you, like the safe box in which you hold treasures. These cabinets or closets which contain these oceans of treasures of knowledge and enlightenment, just as the tsunami took everything in its way, it will take that wali moving him so strongly into the epicenter of the `ayn al-wahdat, the ocean of unity. Everything you will be seeing will indicate to the Creator, everything is coming from Allah (swt) and there you will experience complete submission. That makes you not to be able to hear, not to be able to see, not to be able to sense except to your lord to come to him through the prophet (s), then through the shaykh.
So at that time you don't hear except through your shaykh, see, feel. Then he will take you to a station where you don't hear except through the Prophet (s)… then he will take you to the station where you don't hear except through Allah (swt).That is fana fillah fana fil habib, fana fi'l-mashaykh – annihilation in Allah, annihilation in the Beloved (the Prophet (s)), annihilation in the shaykhs.
That shaykh who takes you there is the light of your soul. When it was created, your soul was blended with the soul of your shaykh, and he is the life of your soul and his soul is the secret of your reality. Because from his soul your reality is coming, because you have been assigned on the Day of Promises; so through him you understand your reality and through his reality comes all knowledge and comes all understanding of the universe around. Nothing can come outside his reality, for his reality as his soul is the secret of your reality and his reality is the knowledge of what is going around, so too his soul is from the reality of the prophet. Like a chain reaction. As he is to you, he is to the prophet. As he is the life of your soul, hayat ruhik, so too is his life of the Prophet (s) and the life of the Prophet (s) is coming from Allah (swt).
These knowledges that we keep explaining, cannot be understood except through the state of humbleness -- when you humble yourself and humiliate yourself. As Sayyidina `Umar (r) did as we described before, you will be able to understand and learn . Or else you will be far from understanding these knowledges, unless you are very well experienced and very well trained in humbleness. That is not by showing yourself humble, by eating on the floor or dressing in dirty clothes, or you are doing this or that to show yourself humble, such as sleeping on the floor or sitting on the floor. In reality, humbleness is within you, that you forgive people if they harm you. That is humbleness. Humbleness is not to show an act or gesture of humbleness. That is simple, everything can do that. But it comes if someone is irritating you or aggravating you or doing something you dislike, and still you are forgiving him and trying to approach more and more towards him, that is humbleness.
Like Sayyidna `Ali (r), when the wrestler spit in his face, that is humbleness. He said, "If I kill you now, then humbleness is gone." Like the neighbor of the Prophet (s), seven years dumping his garbage at the door of the Prophet (s). And when he was dying he visited him. He never said anything about it to anyone. He didn't know that one is hurting him? He knows, he is the Prophet (s).
Like the ones who asked Sayyidina Musa, "How many years does our neighbor have of life," [the neighbor] who was a tyrant? Sayyidina Musa (as) said, "300 years." Then he said, "La hawla wa la quwaatta illa billahi il` alee al `adheem." Then the man's wife asked asked Sayyidina Musa, "how many years does our neighbor have of life?" Sayyidina Musa (as) didn't say to her, "Go ask your husband, I already gave the answer." He said, "300 years." Then she said, "La hawla wa la quwaatta illa billahi il` alee al `adheem." Then the man's son asked asked Sayyidina Musa, "how many years does our neighbor have of life?" Sayyidina Musa (as) said, "300 years." Then he said, "La hawla wa la quwaatta illa billahi il` alee al `adheem."
So the man said, "La hawla wa la quwaatta illa billahi il` alee al `adheem." the wife said, "La hawla wa la quwaatta illa billahi il` alee al `adheem.", and the son said, "La hawla wa la quwaatta illa billahi il` alee al `adheem."
Then that neighbor died. Then Sayyidina Musa said, "How Ya Rabbee, you said 300 years. Allah (swt) replied, "When they rendered to me, then I must respond."
That is humbleness. You have to eliminate arrogance and pride, and put in humbleness. Then these oceans of knowledge can come and stay in the heart. That humbleness will elevate in you and create within you patience. As you become more and more humble, you become more and more patient to those who are hurting.
And in showing humbleness to the shaykh…you say how to show humbleness to shaykh? That is not to give him his shoes. That is love. Humbleness is to leave everything to shaykh, to accept whatever he says. That is when the heart becomes more polished and clean, then he can throw in it knowledge. If you are patient through humbleness, then what will shaykh do? He will feed you bitterness, in order to teach you. When he sees you are in a level that you don't object, he will try to give you the bitterness of what he can, by preventing you from the desire of this world, and then make everything difficult to see how much you can carry and bear. Yutimuka al-murra. He will feed you the bitterness and sourness by preventing the pleasures of this dunya. Everyone likes to have a video camera, everyone likes to have a cell phone. That is from pleasures of dunya. We are like children in eyes of shaykh. We like candies. What is the best candy, to have a cell phone. Not a normal cell phone. To get a non-physical cell phone. What is the nicest cellphone? To connect directly to the heart of the shaykh. Without any battery. everyone wants something out of following. No one says, "I follow to polish the heart." That is why there are many that follow for thirty, forty years and then at the end they begin to go astray and get doubts and begin to question because from the beginning they were seeking to get something. That is becoming a dangerous issue. Now you see them coming to the shaykh for many reasons. Most are coming for dunya issues. No one coming to be around the shaykh to learn from the shaykh.
Then when shaykh sees that, he gives them one sip of bitterness. To check. He doesn't give them a big cup -- they will die, they will run away. Then he checks. Oh, they are struggling now. It is a sip, and they struggle. [struggle with faith]
Instead of giving you pleasure of this dunya, wa yahrimuka min tamata` biha - forbidding you from enjoying any worldly pleasure, because he wants for you the pleasures of akhira. Because he wants for you the pleasure of akhira. We say, why he is doing this for us when he does not do for others that we know. They are around him and getting all the crumbs from him and why he is not doing to them, only to us? Why he keeps petting them, giving them what they like, living with him, sitting with them in the room. Yes, he is giving them because he wants to give them dunya. For you he gives you bitterness of dunya, in order to give you akhira.
What do you want? How much? Money for business, take and go. He gives. But for you, he makes you to get upset and to get frustrated. They are like me, why he gives them and not me? Because he is training. He is not training them, he does not care for them. That is difficult, very difficult on the self. That is why between mureeds, in any Sufi training, the master might give some more than others. And they say why he is preferring them more than us. Even they are wasting what he gives them, they are not praying as we are, they are not doing dhikr as we are, and he gives them more attention to them than us and when he speaks to us he shouts at us. That is the way, if you like it accept it, and if not, struggle like a salmon fish. Everyone struggling according to his capacity and according to his level. What he wants for you is pleasure of akhira and pleasure of jannah. He wants for you what was promised to the prophet (s), highest level of paradise, maqam as-sidq` inda maleekin muqtadir, station of truthfulness in the divine presence.
So be patient with the long turning away from you of the shaykh, when he doesn't give you attention, jafa, but he mistreats you and ignores you completely, and always showing himself as disgusted with you, has nothing to do with you, doesn't talk to you, you are the worst of his followers, criticizing and complaining. That is where the secret is. For the roots of knowledge, or epicenter of knowledges or source of knowledges, is between his frown and huffing and puffing nafaraatihi, his disdain. Between his grimness and his disdain is the epicenter of knowledges.
Knowledge, Allah (swt) hid it there, he gave to prophet (s) and prophet (s) gave to awliya and said, hide them.
That is what Allah (swt) said in Quran: `abasa wa tawalla in ja'ahu al-`ama…
He grimaced and turned away from the blind man that turned away from him.
Allah said, "It might be that blind man will come and get knowledge."
In the secret, the prophet (s) grimaced and disdained, to polish quickly the blind man and raise him quickly to receive those secrets for akhira.
When the shaykh grimaces, he is trying to take that peacockness characteristic to dump in the ocean of disdain, he got that burden and carried it and nafara minhu -- it means to repulse it away and dump in the ocean of peacockness of Iblees, because he is the dumpster. Between these two, the grimace when he does that, especially if you know him very well for many years, then you can think nothing but, O the shaykh is angry with me, then there is where you can take knowledge. That is why if you don't taste the bitterness in childhood, never in your adulthood will you reach anywhere.
Childhood means your first years in tariqah. If you don't learn the bitterness in what shaykh is trying to polish you, then you cannot become an adult, because it is impossible to change anything when you become older. When you are older it is difficult to expand and to learn more. At that time it has expanded to its capacity and it cannot take more. That is why those who come to tariqah when young are better than those who come when they are old.
So if you don't taste bitterness in your dunya life, you are going to drink from the fountains of ignorance all your life.
Imam Shafii said: "fa man fattahu ta`leem fee waqt shababihim fa kabbir alayhi arba takbirata - Whoever misses learning in his youth, make four takbirs over him." That means he is dead. Then make funeral prayer over him. That is why it is very difficult to change someone when he becomes old, if he was not trying to change his life when he was young.
That is why you see many people when they are moving on the right way, they flip back. You see them on the right way, right way, and then at the end they turn back. That is the great danger. That will destroy us.
So what is the summary of the conclusion of what we have gone through? Khulasta hayat al insan. The life of the human being is connected with knowledge, and through knowledge to reach the best way possible. You are not yet perfect. Prophet (s) is the only perfect one. Then after him the Sahaba and after them the awliya. So the conclusion of the khalwah, whatever we have discussed before, is that the life of the human being is through knowledge, righteousness, piety, humility, patience, reflection (ta'amul), meditation, contemplation and finally through rabitah connection which is the initation you take from the shaykh. All of these above, `ilm, salah, taqwa, tuqa, tawada`, ta`ammul, taffakur, murabitah, all these are wrapped by tadhallul lirabbika, humiliating yourself before you lord, less than humiliation, it is self-effacement before your lord. That all takes you to state where you see yourself very low and your lord is the generous one, and whatever you are doing is still the lowest of the lowest and still you have to believe that peacockness characteristic is still on you and goodness didn't reach you yet. If you didn't realize that then you fall into trap of shaytan. Then there is no recognition of yourself by your Lord, by the Prophet and by your shaykh.
Futuhat al-Khalwat
Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
Audhu billahi min as-shaytan ir-rajeem
Bismillahir-rahmani ir-raheem
Nawaytul arba`een, nawatul `itikaaf…
Madad ya sultanul-awliya.
In the previous session, we said that the state of witnessing is the state of Gnostics and that the light of the Prophet (s) is accumulating all these lights or gathering all this light, an-nur adh-dhaati, the light that describes the essence; it is the secret that is running into all names and attributes. So when that essence, which cannot be described by this description, but to give it an understanding, [it is similar to] when a volcano comes up, it gives all this lava and erupts and all this fire comes out – lava -- and it begins to go running and wherever it goes it melts everything; even rocks will melt. That is in order to understand. So when the light of the absolute essence comes, that light that even the Prophet (s) does not know, these lights are running into the heart and manifesting in the heart of the Prophet (s) and create all these oceans of enlightenment. Wherever these oceans of light run, it will run like a river and like the river, which polishes the rocks, the river will begin to make a shape, just as the lava where it flows creates a shape. So this light will go to awliyaullah and will run in their spirits and souls and becomes like a carrier, that carries that wali and dips him and then drowns him, like diving -- feeling the taste and diving into the buhur al-ahadiyya, the oceans of uniqueness, raising one from the taste of oneness to the taste of witnessing, as happened to Sayyidina Bilal al-Habashi (ra). This is the station of Gnostics. When you reach that station of Gnostics, these oceans will open their treasures and stores to you, like the safe box in which you hold treasures. These cabinets or closets which contain these oceans of treasures of knowledge and enlightenment, just as the tsunami took everything in its way, it will take that wali moving him so strongly into the epicenter of the `ayn al-wahdat, the ocean of unity. Everything you will be seeing will indicate to the Creator, everything is coming from Allah (swt) and there you will experience complete submission. That makes you not to be able to hear, not to be able to see, not to be able to sense except to your lord to come to him through the prophet (s), then through the shaykh.
So at that time you don't hear except through your shaykh, see, feel. Then he will take you to a station where you don't hear except through the Prophet (s)… then he will take you to the station where you don't hear except through Allah (swt).That is fana fillah fana fil habib, fana fi'l-mashaykh – annihilation in Allah, annihilation in the Beloved (the Prophet (s)), annihilation in the shaykhs.
That shaykh who takes you there is the light of your soul. When it was created, your soul was blended with the soul of your shaykh, and he is the life of your soul and his soul is the secret of your reality. Because from his soul your reality is coming, because you have been assigned on the Day of Promises; so through him you understand your reality and through his reality comes all knowledge and comes all understanding of the universe around. Nothing can come outside his reality, for his reality as his soul is the secret of your reality and his reality is the knowledge of what is going around, so too his soul is from the reality of the prophet. Like a chain reaction. As he is to you, he is to the prophet. As he is the life of your soul, hayat ruhik, so too is his life of the Prophet (s) and the life of the Prophet (s) is coming from Allah (swt).
These knowledges that we keep explaining, cannot be understood except through the state of humbleness -- when you humble yourself and humiliate yourself. As Sayyidina `Umar (r) did as we described before, you will be able to understand and learn . Or else you will be far from understanding these knowledges, unless you are very well experienced and very well trained in humbleness. That is not by showing yourself humble, by eating on the floor or dressing in dirty clothes, or you are doing this or that to show yourself humble, such as sleeping on the floor or sitting on the floor. In reality, humbleness is within you, that you forgive people if they harm you. That is humbleness. Humbleness is not to show an act or gesture of humbleness. That is simple, everything can do that. But it comes if someone is irritating you or aggravating you or doing something you dislike, and still you are forgiving him and trying to approach more and more towards him, that is humbleness.
Like Sayyidna `Ali (r), when the wrestler spit in his face, that is humbleness. He said, "If I kill you now, then humbleness is gone." Like the neighbor of the Prophet (s), seven years dumping his garbage at the door of the Prophet (s). And when he was dying he visited him. He never said anything about it to anyone. He didn't know that one is hurting him? He knows, he is the Prophet (s).
Like the ones who asked Sayyidina Musa, "How many years does our neighbor have of life," [the neighbor] who was a tyrant? Sayyidina Musa (as) said, "300 years." Then he said, "La hawla wa la quwaatta illa billahi il` alee al `adheem." Then the man's wife asked asked Sayyidina Musa, "how many years does our neighbor have of life?" Sayyidina Musa (as) didn't say to her, "Go ask your husband, I already gave the answer." He said, "300 years." Then she said, "La hawla wa la quwaatta illa billahi il` alee al `adheem." Then the man's son asked asked Sayyidina Musa, "how many years does our neighbor have of life?" Sayyidina Musa (as) said, "300 years." Then he said, "La hawla wa la quwaatta illa billahi il` alee al `adheem."
So the man said, "La hawla wa la quwaatta illa billahi il` alee al `adheem." the wife said, "La hawla wa la quwaatta illa billahi il` alee al `adheem.", and the son said, "La hawla wa la quwaatta illa billahi il` alee al `adheem."
Then that neighbor died. Then Sayyidina Musa said, "How Ya Rabbee, you said 300 years. Allah (swt) replied, "When they rendered to me, then I must respond."
That is humbleness. You have to eliminate arrogance and pride, and put in humbleness. Then these oceans of knowledge can come and stay in the heart. That humbleness will elevate in you and create within you patience. As you become more and more humble, you become more and more patient to those who are hurting.
And in showing humbleness to the shaykh…you say how to show humbleness to shaykh? That is not to give him his shoes. That is love. Humbleness is to leave everything to shaykh, to accept whatever he says. That is when the heart becomes more polished and clean, then he can throw in it knowledge. If you are patient through humbleness, then what will shaykh do? He will feed you bitterness, in order to teach you. When he sees you are in a level that you don't object, he will try to give you the bitterness of what he can, by preventing you from the desire of this world, and then make everything difficult to see how much you can carry and bear. Yutimuka al-murra. He will feed you the bitterness and sourness by preventing the pleasures of this dunya. Everyone likes to have a video camera, everyone likes to have a cell phone. That is from pleasures of dunya. We are like children in eyes of shaykh. We like candies. What is the best candy, to have a cell phone. Not a normal cell phone. To get a non-physical cell phone. What is the nicest cellphone? To connect directly to the heart of the shaykh. Without any battery. everyone wants something out of following. No one says, "I follow to polish the heart." That is why there are many that follow for thirty, forty years and then at the end they begin to go astray and get doubts and begin to question because from the beginning they were seeking to get something. That is becoming a dangerous issue. Now you see them coming to the shaykh for many reasons. Most are coming for dunya issues. No one coming to be around the shaykh to learn from the shaykh.
Then when shaykh sees that, he gives them one sip of bitterness. To check. He doesn't give them a big cup -- they will die, they will run away. Then he checks. Oh, they are struggling now. It is a sip, and they struggle. [struggle with faith]
Instead of giving you pleasure of this dunya, wa yahrimuka min tamata` biha - forbidding you from enjoying any worldly pleasure, because he wants for you the pleasures of akhira. Because he wants for you the pleasure of akhira. We say, why he is doing this for us when he does not do for others that we know. They are around him and getting all the crumbs from him and why he is not doing to them, only to us? Why he keeps petting them, giving them what they like, living with him, sitting with them in the room. Yes, he is giving them because he wants to give them dunya. For you he gives you bitterness of dunya, in order to give you akhira.
What do you want? How much? Money for business, take and go. He gives. But for you, he makes you to get upset and to get frustrated. They are like me, why he gives them and not me? Because he is training. He is not training them, he does not care for them. That is difficult, very difficult on the self. That is why between mureeds, in any Sufi training, the master might give some more than others. And they say why he is preferring them more than us. Even they are wasting what he gives them, they are not praying as we are, they are not doing dhikr as we are, and he gives them more attention to them than us and when he speaks to us he shouts at us. That is the way, if you like it accept it, and if not, struggle like a salmon fish. Everyone struggling according to his capacity and according to his level. What he wants for you is pleasure of akhira and pleasure of jannah. He wants for you what was promised to the prophet (s), highest level of paradise, maqam as-sidq` inda maleekin muqtadir, station of truthfulness in the divine presence.
So be patient with the long turning away from you of the shaykh, when he doesn't give you attention, jafa, but he mistreats you and ignores you completely, and always showing himself as disgusted with you, has nothing to do with you, doesn't talk to you, you are the worst of his followers, criticizing and complaining. That is where the secret is. For the roots of knowledge, or epicenter of knowledges or source of knowledges, is between his frown and huffing and puffing nafaraatihi, his disdain. Between his grimness and his disdain is the epicenter of knowledges.
Knowledge, Allah (swt) hid it there, he gave to prophet (s) and prophet (s) gave to awliya and said, hide them.
That is what Allah (swt) said in Quran: `abasa wa tawalla in ja'ahu al-`ama…
He grimaced and turned away from the blind man that turned away from him.
Allah said, "It might be that blind man will come and get knowledge."
In the secret, the prophet (s) grimaced and disdained, to polish quickly the blind man and raise him quickly to receive those secrets for akhira.
When the shaykh grimaces, he is trying to take that peacockness characteristic to dump in the ocean of disdain, he got that burden and carried it and nafara minhu -- it means to repulse it away and dump in the ocean of peacockness of Iblees, because he is the dumpster. Between these two, the grimace when he does that, especially if you know him very well for many years, then you can think nothing but, O the shaykh is angry with me, then there is where you can take knowledge. That is why if you don't taste the bitterness in childhood, never in your adulthood will you reach anywhere.
Childhood means your first years in tariqah. If you don't learn the bitterness in what shaykh is trying to polish you, then you cannot become an adult, because it is impossible to change anything when you become older. When you are older it is difficult to expand and to learn more. At that time it has expanded to its capacity and it cannot take more. That is why those who come to tariqah when young are better than those who come when they are old.
So if you don't taste bitterness in your dunya life, you are going to drink from the fountains of ignorance all your life.
Imam Shafii said: "fa man fattahu ta`leem fee waqt shababihim fa kabbir alayhi arba takbirata - Whoever misses learning in his youth, make four takbirs over him." That means he is dead. Then make funeral prayer over him. That is why it is very difficult to change someone when he becomes old, if he was not trying to change his life when he was young.
That is why you see many people when they are moving on the right way, they flip back. You see them on the right way, right way, and then at the end they turn back. That is the great danger. That will destroy us.
So what is the summary of the conclusion of what we have gone through? Khulasta hayat al insan. The life of the human being is connected with knowledge, and through knowledge to reach the best way possible. You are not yet perfect. Prophet (s) is the only perfect one. Then after him the Sahaba and after them the awliya. So the conclusion of the khalwah, whatever we have discussed before, is that the life of the human being is through knowledge, righteousness, piety, humility, patience, reflection (ta'amul), meditation, contemplation and finally through rabitah connection which is the initation you take from the shaykh. All of these above, `ilm, salah, taqwa, tuqa, tawada`, ta`ammul, taffakur, murabitah, all these are wrapped by tadhallul lirabbika, humiliating yourself before you lord, less than humiliation, it is self-effacement before your lord. That all takes you to state where you see yourself very low and your lord is the generous one, and whatever you are doing is still the lowest of the lowest and still you have to believe that peacockness characteristic is still on you and goodness didn't reach you yet. If you didn't realize that then you fall into trap of shaytan. Then there is no recognition of yourself by your Lord, by the Prophet and by your shaykh.
February 23, 2009
Wali Therapy
Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani qs
Friday, Nov 25, 2005 | Fenton, MI US
SufiLive.com
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah azeez Allah
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah azeez Allah
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah subhan Allah
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah sultan Allah
Allah is the Sultan. Dastoor Ya Sayyidee, Madad.
These days, there is a new treatment to people, it is not new, but it is from a long time ago. It is massage therapy. Do you know massage therapy. It is to keep, like what Reza is doing, massaging, massaging. It is to make like you have a dough, daw, and you are kneading it. Opening it, as much as you are kneading it, it becomes thinner and increases, increases, increases. And it becomes more and more thinner instead of being thick. When it is thick, people don’t like it; they don’t eat it, because it is thick. But when it becomes thinner and thinner and thinner people like it more because it does not make them too much fat.
And it increases in a way that sometimes they use it in sweets, so that it becomes so thin that when you put it in your mouth it dissolves, if it is of many layers, it becomes very thin.
Awliyaullah, always there is a wali therapy, like massage therapy. Massage therapy is to keep pressing and pressing to make the blood move and to make the muscle relax and wherever there is a knot, it will disappear. These knots make the pain because they are in different locations and their existence in these different locations affect the muscles and affects the smoothness of the blood flowing through the body. So they go to massage therapy, in order to treat them.
Awliyaullah, they have - if we can call it that - we call it knowledge therapy. Knowledge therapy is more effective than any other kind of therapies. Because that knowledge therapy is what relates and can speak with every part of the body; it can speak with every cell of the body. Through the shaykh’s speeches or through the wali’s speeches, he gives words that are directed directly to the composition of the body, that it will immediately, as if you are kneading the dough, (daw) it kneads the whole system and makes the system capable of getting away all these knots that they are obstacles that have been put by shaytan in different parts of the heart. Through their knowledge therapy or their singing therapy or their speeches therapy, or their disseminating from themselves that light, which is a light therapy, [which] goes into the people who are listening and sitting and takes away all these knots and prepares them to receive heavenly messages,
heavenly inspirations, heavenly information that are always descending on earth from heavenly sources.
As the Prophet (s) is always in ascension, ascending, it means that knowledge is always descending. Are you understanding. As long as the Prophet (s) is ascending, knowledge is descending. It means as the Prophet (s) is in ascension he is receiving from Allah’s swt Divine Presence, knowledge - more and more - and when he receives in his ascension he sends it to earth for the Ummah.
So it is a two-way system. One way is ascending and one way is descending. Because we cannot have the power of ascension like the Prophet (s), going up in the Divine Presence, we cannot do that because of the many many knots we have in our system, so the Prophet (s), by Allah’s Order, sends that informant that he (s) is receiving, whatever he wants to send, he sends down, if we want to say down, as there is no direction - to us in order for us to understand and eliminate these knots. That descension, can we say, that ascension and descension, are what we were speaking before, they are relatively around each other. They are like stars, as you were describing, stars are moving relatively together in the same system, but they are all of them in different orbits. Is it not. That is what Allah swt said in the Holy Qur’an:
وَكُلٌّ فِي فَلَكٍ يَسْبَحُونَ
wa kullun fee falakin yasbahoon. 36:40.
Each (just) swims along in (its own) orbit (according to Law). Surah Yasin, 36:40.
Everything is in its orbit it is swimming Surah Yasin. Allah swt said yasbahoon. He did not say yaduroon, which is to turn around. Usually what do they do, stars? They spin, they revolve, they move. But why He used yasbahoon? Instead of saying everyone is in its orbit revolving or turning, He said, everyone is in its orbit swimming. Whey he didn’t say yaduroon or yataharakoon, moving. He said “swimming.”
That means that in every orbit there is that star which we are thinking is revolving, but in reality it has, and it is swimming it its, private ocean. Every star has its own ocean that Allah made that star to swim in it. wa kullun fee falakin yasbahoon. As we were describing these stars, their lights from one star to another star differs, like the identity of the eye, from the color of the iris, everyone has a different color that is coming out, that can be known by that color, as the eye is swimming in that watery, aqueous, it is also like a star. It is light and it is swimming in that watery aqueous. These stars are swimming in a watery aqueous that is known to them, not known to us. They have that watery aqueous - that means that significant or special ocean that we cannot describe here, that relates to every star and every person receives from different stars different light that only relates to that person, to him, in order that Allah with his
mercy, sends that heavenly light, because He said:
وَلَقَدْ زَيَّنَّا السَّمَاء الدُّنْيَا بِمَصَابِيحَ وَجَعَلْنَاهَا رُجُومًا لِّلشَّيَاطِينِ وَأَعْتَدْنَا لَهُمْ عَذَابَ السَّعِيرِ
wa laqad zayana as sama ad-dunya bi masabeeha wa ja`alnaha rujooman lish-shayateen
And, indeed, We have adorned the skies nearest to the earth with lights, and have made them the object of futile guesses for the evil ones [from among men]: and for them have We readied suffering through a blazing flame – Mulk, 64:4.
We have decorated the first layer of the skies with lamps, with stars, wa ja`alnaha rujooman lish-shayateen - and We made it rockets on shaytans.
But still we were saying before these stars are still there revolving around each other, it means their light comes to a human being and everyone has a different star and that is why when awliya wants to look at you, they look at your star, they know everything through your identity. Because everyone has an identity, coming from there, giving a different color for his eyes. That is what you are seeing, doctor, from different eyes, encrypted knowledge that now they are using like thumb knowledge, it is because of the reflection from the light that comes from different stars and every person has a light coming from there that reflects from there to the eye like a mirror, so the eye becomes like a mirror for that star, when they are reading the eye, the encryption is really reading that star, but they because cannot read that encryption, they know there is an encryption but they cannot decode it they cannot understand that star, else they will see that
star as you. If technology is able to decode then encryption of the eye, when they look at you and look at that star they will see a resemblance. They look the same, a reflection.
So Allah swt said, to show us that that star is swimming in that ocean that Allah swt gave to it, that Ocean of Knowledge and Ocean of Beauty and Ocean of Power. These three oceans mixed together and give that appearance to you. So He said yasbahoon. They are swimming. It means you in dunya, you are a reflection of that star , the reality of that star that represents you there, in that ocean, you are a reflection of that star here and you will be able to swim in that ocean of these three Beautiful Names. Al-Qadir, wa al-Jamal and bahr al-`ilm. Bahr al-qudrah wa bahr al-jamal wa bahr al-`ilm – the Ocean of Power, the Ocean of Beauty and the Ocean of Knowledge - they are three Oceans that you are swimming in it.
فَلَمَّا سَمِعَتْ بِمَكْرِهِنَّ أَرْسَلَتْ إِلَيْهِنَّ وَأَعْتَدَتْ لَهُنَّ مُتَّكَأً وَآتَتْ كُلَّ وَاحِدَةٍ مِّنْهُنَّ سِكِّينًا وَقَالَتِ اخْرُجْ عَلَيْهِنَّ فَلَمَّا رَأَيْنَهُ أَكْبَرْنَهُ وَقَطَّعْنَ أَيْدِيَهُنَّ وَقُلْنَ حَاشَ لِلّهِ مَا هَـذَا بَشَرًا إِنْ هَـذَا إِلاَّ مَلَكٌ كَرِيمٌ
fa lama ra’aynahu akbarnahu wa qata`na aydeeyihunna wa qulna hashaa lillahi maa haadha basharaa, in haadha ill malakun kareem.
And when they saw him they exalted him and cut their hands, exclaiming: Allah Blameless! This is not a human being. This is no other than some gracious angel. Surah Yusuf, 12:31.
When they saw him said, "Allahu Akbar, what is this, they magnified him.” They dignified him, and they said, “oh,” and they cut their hands, they were cutting their hands and they were not feeling, the ladies, the women, about Sayyidina Yusuf Alayhissalam. And they said this is not a human being, this is a malik, an angel, from his beauty. Because Sayyidina Yusuf Alayhissalam was swimming in that Ocean of Beauty, that appearance came on him so strongly, he was dressed with that beauty…Allah wants to teach a lesson, that when you become very well polished, and the dough is kneaded very hard, you become very thin, polished like a mirror shining. So he was shining like a mirror, from his original reflection from heavens in heavens that stars so people said, “He is not human being he is not ordinary, we cannot accept, he is a malak, an angel.” When you swim in those kinds of oceans you become like an angel, people look at you like an angel,
they cannot, they are continuously looking at you, they cut their hands.
Sayyidina Ahmad al-Badawi, they were not able to look into his eyes because when they look they faint from that beauty and light. Sayyidina Yusuf, more then they fainting is fainting, there is no pain in fainting, everything becomes black, as before. But when you are having a higher and higher level of angelic power and you are becoming more strong on your faith, even if people are cutting themselves and bleeding they feel no pain because of the beauty that is attracting your eyes to that angel.
That is what happened to the one who asked Sayyidina Musa Alayhissalam for Allah to send him love, faith. You don’t have faith? No I need love, infatuation, that love to Allah that `ishq, that infatuation to Allah. Sayyidina Musa Alayhissalam went to Tur Sina, and said, “Ya Rabbee, that one that is believing in me, that servant, that `abd is asking this.” Allah said, “Very well. I am sending from that ocean of love to his heart.” So when Sayyidina Musa Alayhissalam came back, he found him, he is gone. He shocked him, he moved him, nothing. Allah said to Sayyidina Musa Alayhissalam, “Ya Musa Alayhissalam, if you grind him or put him in a blender - there were no blenders in that time, but they had stones, that you put and grind seeds - if you put him in there and grind him with that one ton stone, he will not feel anything. If you take and cut him into pieces, he will not feel it. He is already in My Presence. He doesn’t feel anything except
My Presence.”
So Sayyidina Muhammad (s) in his ascension, he is going deeper and deeper, nearer and nearer but whatever we say nearer, still it is far, for the nearness to Allah swt, as much as you come near, as much as you feel it is far, because you want to get it and you cannot are approaching Allah, as much as you come near you feel far.
Like someone who says “I am going to celebrate my birthday.” But as his birthday approaches, he sees it far, even if it is one week away. That one week may seem more than a year. As much as you approach the target as much as you feel that target is far. So the Prophet in his nearness and ever nearness to Allah, as much as he approaches, as much as he sees it far. That is because he is `abd and Allah is Allah swt. So in that ascension he is sending that knowledge and that knowledge is reaching our realities, in these stars, and from there it reflects. And as they are reflecting and we are allowing that reflection to pass through us, then all the knots in our body will disappear and the knowledge will find a way to reach the heart. But if we are not trying to accept that reflection and allow it to come, then these knots will sit there forever until you die. And this knowledge will never reach you, because there are obstacles in the middle, in the way.
So Allah swt ordered us to remove these obstacles: the five pillars of Islam. Those are obstacles, removers, and the Sunnah of the Prophet. You cannot eliminate the Sunnah of the Prophet. When you eliminate it then these obstacles are going to be there. Why was the Prophet praying Sunnah? If it is not necessary then he will pray only the fard, the obligation. Like yesterday, we immediately went into the `Asr payer. I did not say anything we immediately went into fard. We didn’t pray the Sunnah. They went directly into the fard, they made iqamah. Where is the Sunnah. It is gone? It is eaten. Why the Prophet prayed Sunnah. The Sunnah is the key of the lock. To open the lock you need the key. The lock is the obligation, the Sunnah is the key. Without that key put inside and turn the lock doesn’t open. So both of them work together, Sunnah and fard. Like you go to ATM card machine and you put your pin number or you put your name - is never going to
work. What do you need to make it work? You need the card.
So you need the card, the card is the Sunnah. Then the fard will work, the obligation. That makes the fard, the obligation to work. So without the Sunnah the door will not open.
How do you come to the presence of, let’s say, a president or a king without a nice dress? Can you go wearing a dress that is not suitable for that presence? So Sunnah is the dress that decorates you in order that you will be able, when you enter in the presence, you are in a very nice decoration, as Allah said in the Holy Qur’an:
يَا بَنِي آدَمَ خُذُواْ زِينَتَكُمْ عِندَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍ
Ya Bani Adam khudhoo zeenatakum `inda kulla masjid.
O Children of Adam, wear your beautiful apparel at every time and place of prayer. Surat al-`Araf, 7:31
Take your decoration, it mans take the best of what you can, to wherever you go to a mosque to pray take your decoration. It means in literary meaning dress nicely and put nice smell and go. But in reality it means don’t leave the Sunnah behind, because that is the dress. When you put on that dress, the Sunnah of the Prophet, then you can enter into the divine presence. Then this knowledge will be coming to you, this revolving, all of them are spinning in a different way, yet all are all together are moving. What do you call them, constellations. All these stars in the universe, although they are moving in a different way, yet all together, they are dancing. That movement is dancing in Allah’s love. That love makes them to vibrate. If you put your ear then you can hear their vibrations, you can hear their praising of Allah, these constellations. Don’t think they are fixed there like statues. They are in continuous praising to Allah. Awliyaullah can
hear that. Some can hear it but they cannot decrypt the encoding of that music. Some they can, it depends on their levels.
And for us to know, is that:
وَكُلُّ شَيْءٍ عِندَهُ بِمِقْدَارٍ
wa kullu shayin `indahu bi miqdaar,
Every single thing is before His sight, in (due) proportion. Surat al-Ra`d, 13:8
Allah said in Holy Qur’an - everything in his presence is in a balance. Not imbalance. In balance. Everything bi miqdar, in the right quantity, not more not less. And it comes according to what you are doing and how far you are moving. So our realities, Allah wants us to reach that realities and wants us to let these knots out, and this is the awliya knowledge therapy or as we said light therapy or love therapy or speech therapy or singing therapy, through their different ways with their followers it is a therapy to eliminate satanic characteristics from that person and present him with angelic characteristics, in order to be able to become like this light. Look, when we put it on it was so powerful that you could not open your eyes. But now you can open your eyes, it doesn’t affect as before. Why? Physics. [because before our eyes adjust to the light. When it was dark, our eyes were more sensitive to the light] yes, as you said we had to adjust to
the light, now even though it is more strong, when we adjusted we are able to look to it.
Our bodies and our souls when they dressed in darkness of satanic characteristics they are adjusted to darkness they are unable to see lights, until they are adjusted, because darkness stops them, until they are adjusted. To adjust them, you need speech therapy or wilayah therapy or wali therapy in order to adjust yourself, he will adjust you slowly, slowly, to be able to reach that huge light that we are seeing shining there. Then your system will be able to adjust to heavenly characteristics. At that time he will be able to present you to the presence of the Prophet and the Prophet will be able to present you to the presence of Allah swt. May Allah forgive us and give us the best of this day and keep us always together under the wing of Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani. Bi-hurmatil- fatiha.
Wa min Allah at Tawfiq
Friday, Nov 25, 2005 | Fenton, MI US
SufiLive.com
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah azeez Allah
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah azeez Allah
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah subhan Allah
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah sultan Allah
Allah is the Sultan. Dastoor Ya Sayyidee, Madad.
These days, there is a new treatment to people, it is not new, but it is from a long time ago. It is massage therapy. Do you know massage therapy. It is to keep, like what Reza is doing, massaging, massaging. It is to make like you have a dough, daw, and you are kneading it. Opening it, as much as you are kneading it, it becomes thinner and increases, increases, increases. And it becomes more and more thinner instead of being thick. When it is thick, people don’t like it; they don’t eat it, because it is thick. But when it becomes thinner and thinner and thinner people like it more because it does not make them too much fat.
And it increases in a way that sometimes they use it in sweets, so that it becomes so thin that when you put it in your mouth it dissolves, if it is of many layers, it becomes very thin.
Awliyaullah, always there is a wali therapy, like massage therapy. Massage therapy is to keep pressing and pressing to make the blood move and to make the muscle relax and wherever there is a knot, it will disappear. These knots make the pain because they are in different locations and their existence in these different locations affect the muscles and affects the smoothness of the blood flowing through the body. So they go to massage therapy, in order to treat them.
Awliyaullah, they have - if we can call it that - we call it knowledge therapy. Knowledge therapy is more effective than any other kind of therapies. Because that knowledge therapy is what relates and can speak with every part of the body; it can speak with every cell of the body. Through the shaykh’s speeches or through the wali’s speeches, he gives words that are directed directly to the composition of the body, that it will immediately, as if you are kneading the dough, (daw) it kneads the whole system and makes the system capable of getting away all these knots that they are obstacles that have been put by shaytan in different parts of the heart. Through their knowledge therapy or their singing therapy or their speeches therapy, or their disseminating from themselves that light, which is a light therapy, [which] goes into the people who are listening and sitting and takes away all these knots and prepares them to receive heavenly messages,
heavenly inspirations, heavenly information that are always descending on earth from heavenly sources.
As the Prophet (s) is always in ascension, ascending, it means that knowledge is always descending. Are you understanding. As long as the Prophet (s) is ascending, knowledge is descending. It means as the Prophet (s) is in ascension he is receiving from Allah’s swt Divine Presence, knowledge - more and more - and when he receives in his ascension he sends it to earth for the Ummah.
So it is a two-way system. One way is ascending and one way is descending. Because we cannot have the power of ascension like the Prophet (s), going up in the Divine Presence, we cannot do that because of the many many knots we have in our system, so the Prophet (s), by Allah’s Order, sends that informant that he (s) is receiving, whatever he wants to send, he sends down, if we want to say down, as there is no direction - to us in order for us to understand and eliminate these knots. That descension, can we say, that ascension and descension, are what we were speaking before, they are relatively around each other. They are like stars, as you were describing, stars are moving relatively together in the same system, but they are all of them in different orbits. Is it not. That is what Allah swt said in the Holy Qur’an:
وَكُلٌّ فِي فَلَكٍ يَسْبَحُونَ
wa kullun fee falakin yasbahoon. 36:40.
Each (just) swims along in (its own) orbit (according to Law). Surah Yasin, 36:40.
Everything is in its orbit it is swimming Surah Yasin. Allah swt said yasbahoon. He did not say yaduroon, which is to turn around. Usually what do they do, stars? They spin, they revolve, they move. But why He used yasbahoon? Instead of saying everyone is in its orbit revolving or turning, He said, everyone is in its orbit swimming. Whey he didn’t say yaduroon or yataharakoon, moving. He said “swimming.”
That means that in every orbit there is that star which we are thinking is revolving, but in reality it has, and it is swimming it its, private ocean. Every star has its own ocean that Allah made that star to swim in it. wa kullun fee falakin yasbahoon. As we were describing these stars, their lights from one star to another star differs, like the identity of the eye, from the color of the iris, everyone has a different color that is coming out, that can be known by that color, as the eye is swimming in that watery, aqueous, it is also like a star. It is light and it is swimming in that watery aqueous. These stars are swimming in a watery aqueous that is known to them, not known to us. They have that watery aqueous - that means that significant or special ocean that we cannot describe here, that relates to every star and every person receives from different stars different light that only relates to that person, to him, in order that Allah with his
mercy, sends that heavenly light, because He said:
وَلَقَدْ زَيَّنَّا السَّمَاء الدُّنْيَا بِمَصَابِيحَ وَجَعَلْنَاهَا رُجُومًا لِّلشَّيَاطِينِ وَأَعْتَدْنَا لَهُمْ عَذَابَ السَّعِيرِ
wa laqad zayana as sama ad-dunya bi masabeeha wa ja`alnaha rujooman lish-shayateen
And, indeed, We have adorned the skies nearest to the earth with lights, and have made them the object of futile guesses for the evil ones [from among men]: and for them have We readied suffering through a blazing flame – Mulk, 64:4.
We have decorated the first layer of the skies with lamps, with stars, wa ja`alnaha rujooman lish-shayateen - and We made it rockets on shaytans.
But still we were saying before these stars are still there revolving around each other, it means their light comes to a human being and everyone has a different star and that is why when awliya wants to look at you, they look at your star, they know everything through your identity. Because everyone has an identity, coming from there, giving a different color for his eyes. That is what you are seeing, doctor, from different eyes, encrypted knowledge that now they are using like thumb knowledge, it is because of the reflection from the light that comes from different stars and every person has a light coming from there that reflects from there to the eye like a mirror, so the eye becomes like a mirror for that star, when they are reading the eye, the encryption is really reading that star, but they because cannot read that encryption, they know there is an encryption but they cannot decode it they cannot understand that star, else they will see that
star as you. If technology is able to decode then encryption of the eye, when they look at you and look at that star they will see a resemblance. They look the same, a reflection.
So Allah swt said, to show us that that star is swimming in that ocean that Allah swt gave to it, that Ocean of Knowledge and Ocean of Beauty and Ocean of Power. These three oceans mixed together and give that appearance to you. So He said yasbahoon. They are swimming. It means you in dunya, you are a reflection of that star , the reality of that star that represents you there, in that ocean, you are a reflection of that star here and you will be able to swim in that ocean of these three Beautiful Names. Al-Qadir, wa al-Jamal and bahr al-`ilm. Bahr al-qudrah wa bahr al-jamal wa bahr al-`ilm – the Ocean of Power, the Ocean of Beauty and the Ocean of Knowledge - they are three Oceans that you are swimming in it.
فَلَمَّا سَمِعَتْ بِمَكْرِهِنَّ أَرْسَلَتْ إِلَيْهِنَّ وَأَعْتَدَتْ لَهُنَّ مُتَّكَأً وَآتَتْ كُلَّ وَاحِدَةٍ مِّنْهُنَّ سِكِّينًا وَقَالَتِ اخْرُجْ عَلَيْهِنَّ فَلَمَّا رَأَيْنَهُ أَكْبَرْنَهُ وَقَطَّعْنَ أَيْدِيَهُنَّ وَقُلْنَ حَاشَ لِلّهِ مَا هَـذَا بَشَرًا إِنْ هَـذَا إِلاَّ مَلَكٌ كَرِيمٌ
fa lama ra’aynahu akbarnahu wa qata`na aydeeyihunna wa qulna hashaa lillahi maa haadha basharaa, in haadha ill malakun kareem.
And when they saw him they exalted him and cut their hands, exclaiming: Allah Blameless! This is not a human being. This is no other than some gracious angel. Surah Yusuf, 12:31.
When they saw him said, "Allahu Akbar, what is this, they magnified him.” They dignified him, and they said, “oh,” and they cut their hands, they were cutting their hands and they were not feeling, the ladies, the women, about Sayyidina Yusuf Alayhissalam. And they said this is not a human being, this is a malik, an angel, from his beauty. Because Sayyidina Yusuf Alayhissalam was swimming in that Ocean of Beauty, that appearance came on him so strongly, he was dressed with that beauty…Allah wants to teach a lesson, that when you become very well polished, and the dough is kneaded very hard, you become very thin, polished like a mirror shining. So he was shining like a mirror, from his original reflection from heavens in heavens that stars so people said, “He is not human being he is not ordinary, we cannot accept, he is a malak, an angel.” When you swim in those kinds of oceans you become like an angel, people look at you like an angel,
they cannot, they are continuously looking at you, they cut their hands.
Sayyidina Ahmad al-Badawi, they were not able to look into his eyes because when they look they faint from that beauty and light. Sayyidina Yusuf, more then they fainting is fainting, there is no pain in fainting, everything becomes black, as before. But when you are having a higher and higher level of angelic power and you are becoming more strong on your faith, even if people are cutting themselves and bleeding they feel no pain because of the beauty that is attracting your eyes to that angel.
That is what happened to the one who asked Sayyidina Musa Alayhissalam for Allah to send him love, faith. You don’t have faith? No I need love, infatuation, that love to Allah that `ishq, that infatuation to Allah. Sayyidina Musa Alayhissalam went to Tur Sina, and said, “Ya Rabbee, that one that is believing in me, that servant, that `abd is asking this.” Allah said, “Very well. I am sending from that ocean of love to his heart.” So when Sayyidina Musa Alayhissalam came back, he found him, he is gone. He shocked him, he moved him, nothing. Allah said to Sayyidina Musa Alayhissalam, “Ya Musa Alayhissalam, if you grind him or put him in a blender - there were no blenders in that time, but they had stones, that you put and grind seeds - if you put him in there and grind him with that one ton stone, he will not feel anything. If you take and cut him into pieces, he will not feel it. He is already in My Presence. He doesn’t feel anything except
My Presence.”
So Sayyidina Muhammad (s) in his ascension, he is going deeper and deeper, nearer and nearer but whatever we say nearer, still it is far, for the nearness to Allah swt, as much as you come near, as much as you feel it is far, because you want to get it and you cannot are approaching Allah, as much as you come near you feel far.
Like someone who says “I am going to celebrate my birthday.” But as his birthday approaches, he sees it far, even if it is one week away. That one week may seem more than a year. As much as you approach the target as much as you feel that target is far. So the Prophet in his nearness and ever nearness to Allah, as much as he approaches, as much as he sees it far. That is because he is `abd and Allah is Allah swt. So in that ascension he is sending that knowledge and that knowledge is reaching our realities, in these stars, and from there it reflects. And as they are reflecting and we are allowing that reflection to pass through us, then all the knots in our body will disappear and the knowledge will find a way to reach the heart. But if we are not trying to accept that reflection and allow it to come, then these knots will sit there forever until you die. And this knowledge will never reach you, because there are obstacles in the middle, in the way.
So Allah swt ordered us to remove these obstacles: the five pillars of Islam. Those are obstacles, removers, and the Sunnah of the Prophet. You cannot eliminate the Sunnah of the Prophet. When you eliminate it then these obstacles are going to be there. Why was the Prophet praying Sunnah? If it is not necessary then he will pray only the fard, the obligation. Like yesterday, we immediately went into the `Asr payer. I did not say anything we immediately went into fard. We didn’t pray the Sunnah. They went directly into the fard, they made iqamah. Where is the Sunnah. It is gone? It is eaten. Why the Prophet prayed Sunnah. The Sunnah is the key of the lock. To open the lock you need the key. The lock is the obligation, the Sunnah is the key. Without that key put inside and turn the lock doesn’t open. So both of them work together, Sunnah and fard. Like you go to ATM card machine and you put your pin number or you put your name - is never going to
work. What do you need to make it work? You need the card.
So you need the card, the card is the Sunnah. Then the fard will work, the obligation. That makes the fard, the obligation to work. So without the Sunnah the door will not open.
How do you come to the presence of, let’s say, a president or a king without a nice dress? Can you go wearing a dress that is not suitable for that presence? So Sunnah is the dress that decorates you in order that you will be able, when you enter in the presence, you are in a very nice decoration, as Allah said in the Holy Qur’an:
يَا بَنِي آدَمَ خُذُواْ زِينَتَكُمْ عِندَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍ
Ya Bani Adam khudhoo zeenatakum `inda kulla masjid.
O Children of Adam, wear your beautiful apparel at every time and place of prayer. Surat al-`Araf, 7:31
Take your decoration, it mans take the best of what you can, to wherever you go to a mosque to pray take your decoration. It means in literary meaning dress nicely and put nice smell and go. But in reality it means don’t leave the Sunnah behind, because that is the dress. When you put on that dress, the Sunnah of the Prophet, then you can enter into the divine presence. Then this knowledge will be coming to you, this revolving, all of them are spinning in a different way, yet all are all together are moving. What do you call them, constellations. All these stars in the universe, although they are moving in a different way, yet all together, they are dancing. That movement is dancing in Allah’s love. That love makes them to vibrate. If you put your ear then you can hear their vibrations, you can hear their praising of Allah, these constellations. Don’t think they are fixed there like statues. They are in continuous praising to Allah. Awliyaullah can
hear that. Some can hear it but they cannot decrypt the encoding of that music. Some they can, it depends on their levels.
And for us to know, is that:
وَكُلُّ شَيْءٍ عِندَهُ بِمِقْدَارٍ
wa kullu shayin `indahu bi miqdaar,
Every single thing is before His sight, in (due) proportion. Surat al-Ra`d, 13:8
Allah said in Holy Qur’an - everything in his presence is in a balance. Not imbalance. In balance. Everything bi miqdar, in the right quantity, not more not less. And it comes according to what you are doing and how far you are moving. So our realities, Allah wants us to reach that realities and wants us to let these knots out, and this is the awliya knowledge therapy or as we said light therapy or love therapy or speech therapy or singing therapy, through their different ways with their followers it is a therapy to eliminate satanic characteristics from that person and present him with angelic characteristics, in order to be able to become like this light. Look, when we put it on it was so powerful that you could not open your eyes. But now you can open your eyes, it doesn’t affect as before. Why? Physics. [because before our eyes adjust to the light. When it was dark, our eyes were more sensitive to the light] yes, as you said we had to adjust to
the light, now even though it is more strong, when we adjusted we are able to look to it.
Our bodies and our souls when they dressed in darkness of satanic characteristics they are adjusted to darkness they are unable to see lights, until they are adjusted, because darkness stops them, until they are adjusted. To adjust them, you need speech therapy or wilayah therapy or wali therapy in order to adjust yourself, he will adjust you slowly, slowly, to be able to reach that huge light that we are seeing shining there. Then your system will be able to adjust to heavenly characteristics. At that time he will be able to present you to the presence of the Prophet and the Prophet will be able to present you to the presence of Allah swt. May Allah forgive us and give us the best of this day and keep us always together under the wing of Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani. Bi-hurmatil- fatiha.
Wa min Allah at Tawfiq
Pearls, Zircons and Diamonds
Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani
Friday, Mar 04, 2005 | Oakland, CA US
SufiLive.com
A`udhu billahi min as-shaytan ir-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-rahmani 'r-raheem
Nawaytu’l-arbay`een, nawaytu’l-`itikaf, nawaytu’l-khalwah, nawaytu’l-riyada, nawaytu’s-saluk, nawaytu’l-`uzlah lillahi ta`ala fi hadha’l-masjid
We are meeting tonight for remembrance of Allah . And to remember our Creator by tongue is so easy but by heart is so difficult. People are of many different kinds; some people live their life dedicated to what they believe in. If they believe in a creator, they dedicate their life to their creator. If they believe in dunya, the pleasures of the world, they dedicate their life for that. These are two different ways of beliefs. But there is a middle way; those who believe in Allah , and they work hard in their life to live a happy life, raising up their nice behavior, showing it and working hard in the community in order to be living in a peaceful society.
So it means we have three different groups.
One group dedicates their life for Allah and his Prophet , the awliya; another dedicates their life for the worldly life and those who are in the middle. Those who dedicate their life for Allah and Prophet and his awliya are like rare diamonds. You know there are diamonds that are very rare. One time one person was showing me a diamond. He was from Yemen, one of the grandsons of the king of Yemen. I met him one time. He showed me a diamond and it was small, maybe 5 carats. He said that diamond is worth $10 million. Why, I don’t know. It shows colors very bright, blue. You might have a very large diamond but cheaper. And you might have a yellow diamond that is worth very much.
So awliyaullah, or those people who dedicate their lives to serving Allah, serving the Prophet (s), and serving awliyaullah – (what I mean by serving is worshiping Allah , praising the Prophet (s) and helping awliyaullah in their lives) - these people are like diamonds; very rare. To see people dedicate their lives to that kind of belief is very rare. Not everyone can dedicate his life in such a way. And although there will be an inner struggle in the self of that person or persons who dedicate their life in such a way, they are still struggling within themselves, because it is not so easy.
When you see these signs: people enjoying themselves on the far extreme side, on the far left side, enjoying their dunya, they are happy, they have everything, and they are enjoying, you might say that maybe these people will not be saved on judgment day, as they know nothing about the creator and they are not following the Prophet (s) ...
But when you look at the middle ones, those who are worshipping on one side and on the other side they are working in dunya, you look and say these people are good; why don’t I be like them? I can be like these people and in akhira, if I worship, making my five prayers, I will be ok. That is correct, but it will be like making a diamond a stone; or like making a diamond like a zircon. That means the middle group, as the zircon is better than pebbles or rocks. Zircon is better than pebbles. But a diamond is better than zircon and far better than rocks.
So diamonds are very difficult to find and to get, but if you get it, you polish it, because it looks to you at the beginning like a stone. That person or persons whose heart is like a diamond, (his heart or her heart, because there are many), that person sees himself as a stone, because it is not yet polished and cut down, that rockness. We are of the understanding that ‘rockness’ resembles animals. Who is the lowest of animals? When you want to look at the lowest of animals, to which do you look? - The donkey.
وَاقْصِدْ فِي مَشْيِكَ وَاغْضُضْ مِن صَوْتِكَ إِنَّ أَنكَرَ الْأَصْوَاتِ لَصَوْتُ الْحَمِيرِ
Waqsid fee mashyika wa’ghdud min sawtika inna ankar al-aswaati la sawt al-hameer.
"And be moderate in thy pace, and lower thy voice; for the harshest of sounds without doubt is the braying of the ass." Luqman [31:19]
Allah is saying in the Holy Qur’an, “Look down when you walk.” It means don’t look up. What is He saying in the Holy Qur’an? Look down. And bring your sawt, it means your voice: what people can hear, and tone down your voice. Don’t use a louder voice, barking like dogs. He said, waghdud, keep your side down. It means to look at yourself. It doesn’t mean only look down there as you walk. Sunnah is to look down at your feet; don’t look forward. That is wasting the energy of the eyes, because you see a lot of what Allah prohibited. Look down. Don’t look at yourself high. You are struggling with your rock. Look down and lower the tone of your voice; because the worst of voices is the voice of donkeys. Throw your donkeyness away. Can we use that term? Yes.
So now we have rockness and donkeyness. So that will give us the understanding that when you are in donkeyness, (because the donkey doesn’t know what is valuable or not valuable) your mind is for dunya only; your whole focus of your life is for worldly pleasure, and you lose the understanding of how you are going to find your Lord.
But those who are diamonds have a shell around them. That shell is that rock. So don’t let the rock keep covering you; keep veiling you. Like when you have a pearl… where do you find a pearl? - Inside the shell? If you open the shell, there is an oyster that you can eat, but that is not the same. But the pearl, what do you call it? And the shell that covers the pearl, the oyster shell, doesn’t it cover it? People when they find the oyster shell what do they do? They open it and find what? [oyster]. What is that? You eat it or what? He confused me. The pearl is inside the mussel. He wants to eat the pearl. You see how much knowledge he has. Donkeyness, he wants to show he knows. He knows, he is our philosopher - correction our programmer.
So they say not to try to find the original oyster shell that is not planted, or cultured. Cultured pearls are not so valuable. But natural pearls are what? Very expensive, you cannot get them. They are rare. Sometimes one necklace might be worth millions of dollars if it has a different color – black, or a different color; they are organic, natural. That means don’t be a cultured pearl, or a zircon. Because cultured pearls are like zircons; you are planting them. You are trying to say, “I enjoy my dunya” and at the same time you are doing your prayers. But there are some amongst the ummah who looked at themselves and try to be natural pearls. That will be an expensive rare kind of pearl.
Like a rare kind of diamond. Don’t let that rock shut you down. So take that rock out, cut it and polish it. There are amongst us those who dedicated their lives; they dedicated the benefit that they would have gotten in their lives to Allah . Like the Virgin Mary… what did she say? Her mother said, “O Allah I have given what is in my womb (as someone dedicating before she knew it was a girl) to you for worship. So when she gave birth, she said, “O, my Lord, I gave birth to a female.” (Allah knows best what she gave birth to. The male is not like the female.) She said, "O Allah, I gave you that, whatever that child is I dedicate to you.”
So she gave birth to what? - To a female. She said, “O Allah, I gave birth to a female and I called that female Maryam. The female is not like a male, and the male is not like a female. I’ve got a female.” Here is emphasis that females are alike; the same in their dedication to Allah. “So I am giving her to You,”and she was the Virgin Mary.”
إِذْ قَالَتِ امْرَأَةُ عِمْرَانَ رَبِّ إِنِّي نَذَرْتُ لَكَ مَا فِي بَطْنِي مُحَرَّرًا فَتَقَبَّلْ مِنِّي إِنَّكَ أَنتَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ
فَلَمَّا وَضَعَتْهَا قَالَتْ رَبِّ إِنِّي وَضَعْتُهَا أُنثَى وَاللّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا وَضَعَتْ وَلَيْسَ الذَّكَرُ كَالأُنثَى َإِنِّي سَمَّيْتُهَا مَرْيَمَ وِإِنِّي أُعِيذُهَا بِكَ وَذُرِّيَّتَهَا مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ فَتَقَبَّلَهَا رَبُّهَا بِقَبُولٍ حَسَنٍ وَأَنبَتَهَا نَبَاتًا حَسَنًا وَكَفَّلَهَا زَكَرِيَّا كُلَّمَا دَخَلَ عَلَيْهَا زَكَرِيَّا الْمِحْرَابَ وَجَدَ عِندَهَا رِزْقاً قَالَ يَا مَرْيَمُ أَنَّى لَكِ هَـذَا قَالَتْ هُوَ مِنْ عِندِ اللّهِ إنَّ اللّهَ يَرْزُقُ مَن يَشَاء بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ
Idh qaalati imraatu `imrana rabbi innee nadhartu laka ma fee batnee muharraran fataqabbal minnee innaka anta alssamee`u al-`aleem.
Falamma wada`atha qaalat rabbi innee wada`tuha untha w’Allahu a`lamu bimaa wada`at wa laysa adhdhakaru ka’l-untha wa innee sammaytuha maryama wa innee oAAeethuha bika wa dhurriyyataha mina’sh-shaytani ’r-rajeem.
Fataqabbalaha rabbuha bi-qaboolin hasanin wa anbataha nabaatan hasanan wa kaffalaha Zakariyya. kullama dakhala `alayha zakariyya al-mihraba wajada `indaha rizqan. qaala ya maryamu anna laki haadha qaalat huwa min `indillahi inna Allaha yarzuqu man yasha’u bi-ghayri hisaab.
Behold! a woman of 'Imran said: "O my Lord! I do dedicate unto Thee what is in my womb for Thy special service: So accept this of me: For Thou hearest and knowest all things." When she was delivered, she said: "O my Lord! Behold! I am delivered of a female child!"- and Allah knew best what she brought forth- "And no wise is the male Like the female. I have named her Mary, and I commend her and her offspring to Thy protection from the Evil One, the Rejected."
Right graciously did her Lord accept her: He made her grow in purity and beauty: To the care of Zakariya was she assigned. Every time that he entered (Her) chamber to see her, He found her supplied with sustenance. He said: "O Mary! Whence (comes) this to you?" She said: "From Allah. for Allah Provides sustenance to whom He pleases without measure."[Surah Maryam, 35-37]
Allah accepted her from the mother of Maryam. He accepted from her. And Allah said, “I accepted that girl from you.” Wa anbataha nabaatan hasana - Allah raised her, and gave her a nice spiritual uplift in her life.” There are people who, male or female, when they give their lives to Allah and to the Prophet (s) and to awliyaullah, Allah will raise them in His way. Allah will guide them and direct them the way He likes, not the way they like. Because then they might be they like the zircon, and Allah likes them to be like the diamond. They have that purity in their hearts, so Allah guides them, wherever they go; this way, to the way the self likes, and brings them back. Hit them; bring them to the normal way. When they go far, bring them back. Allah raised the Virgin Mary. Allah raised Rabi`a al-`Adawiyya. Allah raised Sayyida Asiya; Allah raised Sayyida Khadija, Sayyida Fatima, and Sayyida A`yesha.
Allah raised them and guided important people; from men and from women, awliya. He gave Zakariyya to take care of her. Allah guided someone to take care of Virgin Mary; because she is young, she has to be guided, not to be left alone. So Zakariyya Alayhissalam was guiding Virgin Mary and she has been raised in that environment of prophecy. Zakariyya Alayhissalam was a prophet. Like awliyaullah, they will raise those who come to them. That environment is not easy. A lot of obstacles will come to them as they face it, but they keep moving, moving; like you are facing a hurricane, that strong wind, outside the eye of the hurricane -- that huge wind, going 140 miles per hour. You cannot resist. You try to stand, it pushes you back. So you have to hold something, in order to keep facing that wind. That one that you have to hold onto is your Shaykh. And he takes you to the Prophet (s) to hold onto and the Prophet (s) takes you to presence of Allah where there
is complete peace, no hurricane and no tornado.
And so I brought her up in the right way. You know anbata in Arabic means like when you plant a seed and it becomes a tree. I am planting her in a nice garden and bringing her up flowering. Now take care of her. That is why awliyaullah take care of their followers. And it depends, in different ranks. Those who are for dunya, ah, go for dunya. Give them what they like. Give them once and test them, and you will see them how much they are lying and cursing and shouting. They say, O that is for my Shaykh! Then there are others who are really doing for their Shaykh, through their hearts. Whatever is for the benefit of the Shaykh they are running for it. Don’t leave that rock; try to cut it and bring that diamond out. How to cut it? That is simple. You bring a knife, a special knife. There is a knife to cut wood, what do you call it? Saw.
For meat there is a special knife, what you call it? Knife.
You, Professor, for a diamond what do you need? There is special diamond saw to cut the diamond. Only diamonds can cut diamonds. Nothing cuts diamond except diamonds. That is why awliyaullah are diamonds that are able to cut these rocks, to bring these beautiful cuts. How many cuts in a diamond? There are normal diamonds, I don’t know them. There are round diamonds. There are oval diamonds, there are square diamonds. There are pointed diamonds like a pear. There are different cuts. And they tell you the price of the diamond depends on the cut of the diamond. That means if your Shaykh is from a low-quality diamond, then his cut is from a low-quality cut. And if your Shaykh is from a high quality diamond, then his cut is a high quality cut.
So that depends on how much power your Shaykh has from the cutter of diamonds. As much as he inherits from the Prophet (s) , he is going higher and higher, in order to make the perfect cut. The Prophet (s) is dressing him, the diamond cutter. The Prophet (s) does not have only one dress. He has an infinite number of dresses to dress human beings.
How much that wali is reaching the Prophetic heart; that heart is in the ocean of Allah’s love and Allah’s majestic power. However much that wali is deeply rooted in the prophetic heart of Allah’s love and majesty, that is how much the wali will be stronger, like the eye of the hurricane. They say to you in mining, as deep as the gem is rooted in the deep core of the stone that is the diamond, you will find the best diamond. There might be a few diamonds that are from the surface that they put out for you and polish, but they are not the best diamonds. That is just at the surface. If the shaykh is deeply rooted in the heart of Muhammad (s); deeply rooted in the ocean of beauty; that wali will be able to give you the perfect cut that you need. And there are awliyaullah with that power.
They are experimenting… not experimenting - they are working to cut the perfect cut for the hearts of their followers, in order to make them dedicated only to Allah . After, to His Prophet (s) , and after that to His awliya. Their focus, their aim, their goals, their dunya, their akhira, their lives, their wives, only for them is Prophet and shaykhs. They don’t see anything else. They don’t see right; they don’t see left. They only see forward: what is in their hearts. They give their lives for Allah, the Prophet, and awliya. Then he will begin the pouring of knowledge into their hearts.
Some people say, “we were with the Shaykh thirty or forty years. We didn’t see anything.”
Of course not, you are still rocking in rockness. Like a donkey in donkeyness. You will never come out of it. You are always in it. Wherever you are taking beads, or praying, you are in the middle. You are not a diamond. The diamond is for those who gave everything in their lives. There are many mureeds who are working. They love the Shaykh, they come and go, they attend the suhbat and dhikr, they do their work. They give donations, maybe 100, 200, 300 dollars. What more do we want? These are the middle gems; the zircons, the sapphires, they are rubies. They are not diamonds. Diamonds is when you give up everything, you come with nothing.
Sayyidina Ibrahim gave up everything, so what did they do to him? - They threw him in the fire. And Sayyidina Musa Alayhissalam gave up everything, and what they did with him? – They made him go across the sea, and to be lost in the desert for forty years. That is the reward. Why be lost in the desert? They were lost to lose their identity. “Lost in the desert” means losing your identity. In the desert there is no more identity except the sand. When you become sand, everyone steps on you, and what do you do with sand? You step on it. Did you ever hear the sand objecting? Earth never objects to whatever you throw on it. You dump all kinds of garbage on it. You put every kind of holes in it. You drill and take the oil. You dig and you get diamonds.
Awliyaullah are like earth: whatever you dump on them they give and never complain. So He made him lost in the desert for forty years. And he never objected.
As for Sayyidina Yusuf, what they did with him? His brothers threw him in the well; they were oppressors. What is madhlum? - Oppressed. Since he said nothing, no complaining, what did Allah make him? - The king of Egypt.
Sayyidina Isa , his own student betrayed him. Did he not? Those whom he wanted to cut into diamonds… to make them diamonds… he was even working on them to make them diamonds, and as he is a prophet, he knows the disciple will betray him. But what did he do? He covered it up, he hid it. He waited for that person to betray him. So that person betrayed him. What…Sayyidina `Isa Alayhissalam did not know? How he is a prophet and he doesn’t know? His own student betrayed him, even after he gave him everything – health, wealth and everything. But behind his back what did he do? He backstabbed him.
Don’t think there are people near the Shaykh and say, “O, the Shaykh is always taking care.” Because he knows their evil is so huge, so to keep the peace, keep them close. They are beasts. But there are others who dedicated their lives for their shaykhs. And Allah will raise them and Allah will make the Shaykh guide them in their lives. That is our hope -- that there are many in between that gave up everything in their lives for their shaykhs, doing their best in a critical time of their lives. They find things to do; they drop them down and are doing what the Shaykh needs. It means they are putting as a priority the work of the Shaykh instead of their work. If we can do that, we will be diamonds.
May Allah make us all diamonds, and perfect our hearts for the love of our Shaykh and keep us and bless in the way of Prophet and keep us in his footsteps, in order to reach the door of Allah , here and hereafter. Bi-hurmatil fatiha.
Friday, Mar 04, 2005 | Oakland, CA US
SufiLive.com
A`udhu billahi min as-shaytan ir-rajeem. Bismillahi 'r-rahmani 'r-raheem
Nawaytu’l-arbay`een, nawaytu’l-`itikaf, nawaytu’l-khalwah, nawaytu’l-riyada, nawaytu’s-saluk, nawaytu’l-`uzlah lillahi ta`ala fi hadha’l-masjid
We are meeting tonight for remembrance of Allah . And to remember our Creator by tongue is so easy but by heart is so difficult. People are of many different kinds; some people live their life dedicated to what they believe in. If they believe in a creator, they dedicate their life to their creator. If they believe in dunya, the pleasures of the world, they dedicate their life for that. These are two different ways of beliefs. But there is a middle way; those who believe in Allah , and they work hard in their life to live a happy life, raising up their nice behavior, showing it and working hard in the community in order to be living in a peaceful society.
So it means we have three different groups.
One group dedicates their life for Allah and his Prophet , the awliya; another dedicates their life for the worldly life and those who are in the middle. Those who dedicate their life for Allah and Prophet and his awliya are like rare diamonds. You know there are diamonds that are very rare. One time one person was showing me a diamond. He was from Yemen, one of the grandsons of the king of Yemen. I met him one time. He showed me a diamond and it was small, maybe 5 carats. He said that diamond is worth $10 million. Why, I don’t know. It shows colors very bright, blue. You might have a very large diamond but cheaper. And you might have a yellow diamond that is worth very much.
So awliyaullah, or those people who dedicate their lives to serving Allah, serving the Prophet (s), and serving awliyaullah – (what I mean by serving is worshiping Allah , praising the Prophet (s) and helping awliyaullah in their lives) - these people are like diamonds; very rare. To see people dedicate their lives to that kind of belief is very rare. Not everyone can dedicate his life in such a way. And although there will be an inner struggle in the self of that person or persons who dedicate their life in such a way, they are still struggling within themselves, because it is not so easy.
When you see these signs: people enjoying themselves on the far extreme side, on the far left side, enjoying their dunya, they are happy, they have everything, and they are enjoying, you might say that maybe these people will not be saved on judgment day, as they know nothing about the creator and they are not following the Prophet (s) ...
But when you look at the middle ones, those who are worshipping on one side and on the other side they are working in dunya, you look and say these people are good; why don’t I be like them? I can be like these people and in akhira, if I worship, making my five prayers, I will be ok. That is correct, but it will be like making a diamond a stone; or like making a diamond like a zircon. That means the middle group, as the zircon is better than pebbles or rocks. Zircon is better than pebbles. But a diamond is better than zircon and far better than rocks.
So diamonds are very difficult to find and to get, but if you get it, you polish it, because it looks to you at the beginning like a stone. That person or persons whose heart is like a diamond, (his heart or her heart, because there are many), that person sees himself as a stone, because it is not yet polished and cut down, that rockness. We are of the understanding that ‘rockness’ resembles animals. Who is the lowest of animals? When you want to look at the lowest of animals, to which do you look? - The donkey.
وَاقْصِدْ فِي مَشْيِكَ وَاغْضُضْ مِن صَوْتِكَ إِنَّ أَنكَرَ الْأَصْوَاتِ لَصَوْتُ الْحَمِيرِ
Waqsid fee mashyika wa’ghdud min sawtika inna ankar al-aswaati la sawt al-hameer.
"And be moderate in thy pace, and lower thy voice; for the harshest of sounds without doubt is the braying of the ass." Luqman [31:19]
Allah is saying in the Holy Qur’an, “Look down when you walk.” It means don’t look up. What is He saying in the Holy Qur’an? Look down. And bring your sawt, it means your voice: what people can hear, and tone down your voice. Don’t use a louder voice, barking like dogs. He said, waghdud, keep your side down. It means to look at yourself. It doesn’t mean only look down there as you walk. Sunnah is to look down at your feet; don’t look forward. That is wasting the energy of the eyes, because you see a lot of what Allah prohibited. Look down. Don’t look at yourself high. You are struggling with your rock. Look down and lower the tone of your voice; because the worst of voices is the voice of donkeys. Throw your donkeyness away. Can we use that term? Yes.
So now we have rockness and donkeyness. So that will give us the understanding that when you are in donkeyness, (because the donkey doesn’t know what is valuable or not valuable) your mind is for dunya only; your whole focus of your life is for worldly pleasure, and you lose the understanding of how you are going to find your Lord.
But those who are diamonds have a shell around them. That shell is that rock. So don’t let the rock keep covering you; keep veiling you. Like when you have a pearl… where do you find a pearl? - Inside the shell? If you open the shell, there is an oyster that you can eat, but that is not the same. But the pearl, what do you call it? And the shell that covers the pearl, the oyster shell, doesn’t it cover it? People when they find the oyster shell what do they do? They open it and find what? [oyster]. What is that? You eat it or what? He confused me. The pearl is inside the mussel. He wants to eat the pearl. You see how much knowledge he has. Donkeyness, he wants to show he knows. He knows, he is our philosopher - correction our programmer.
So they say not to try to find the original oyster shell that is not planted, or cultured. Cultured pearls are not so valuable. But natural pearls are what? Very expensive, you cannot get them. They are rare. Sometimes one necklace might be worth millions of dollars if it has a different color – black, or a different color; they are organic, natural. That means don’t be a cultured pearl, or a zircon. Because cultured pearls are like zircons; you are planting them. You are trying to say, “I enjoy my dunya” and at the same time you are doing your prayers. But there are some amongst the ummah who looked at themselves and try to be natural pearls. That will be an expensive rare kind of pearl.
Like a rare kind of diamond. Don’t let that rock shut you down. So take that rock out, cut it and polish it. There are amongst us those who dedicated their lives; they dedicated the benefit that they would have gotten in their lives to Allah . Like the Virgin Mary… what did she say? Her mother said, “O Allah I have given what is in my womb (as someone dedicating before she knew it was a girl) to you for worship. So when she gave birth, she said, “O, my Lord, I gave birth to a female.” (Allah knows best what she gave birth to. The male is not like the female.) She said, "O Allah, I gave you that, whatever that child is I dedicate to you.”
So she gave birth to what? - To a female. She said, “O Allah, I gave birth to a female and I called that female Maryam. The female is not like a male, and the male is not like a female. I’ve got a female.” Here is emphasis that females are alike; the same in their dedication to Allah. “So I am giving her to You,”and she was the Virgin Mary.”
إِذْ قَالَتِ امْرَأَةُ عِمْرَانَ رَبِّ إِنِّي نَذَرْتُ لَكَ مَا فِي بَطْنِي مُحَرَّرًا فَتَقَبَّلْ مِنِّي إِنَّكَ أَنتَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ
فَلَمَّا وَضَعَتْهَا قَالَتْ رَبِّ إِنِّي وَضَعْتُهَا أُنثَى وَاللّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا وَضَعَتْ وَلَيْسَ الذَّكَرُ كَالأُنثَى َإِنِّي سَمَّيْتُهَا مَرْيَمَ وِإِنِّي أُعِيذُهَا بِكَ وَذُرِّيَّتَهَا مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ فَتَقَبَّلَهَا رَبُّهَا بِقَبُولٍ حَسَنٍ وَأَنبَتَهَا نَبَاتًا حَسَنًا وَكَفَّلَهَا زَكَرِيَّا كُلَّمَا دَخَلَ عَلَيْهَا زَكَرِيَّا الْمِحْرَابَ وَجَدَ عِندَهَا رِزْقاً قَالَ يَا مَرْيَمُ أَنَّى لَكِ هَـذَا قَالَتْ هُوَ مِنْ عِندِ اللّهِ إنَّ اللّهَ يَرْزُقُ مَن يَشَاء بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ
Idh qaalati imraatu `imrana rabbi innee nadhartu laka ma fee batnee muharraran fataqabbal minnee innaka anta alssamee`u al-`aleem.
Falamma wada`atha qaalat rabbi innee wada`tuha untha w’Allahu a`lamu bimaa wada`at wa laysa adhdhakaru ka’l-untha wa innee sammaytuha maryama wa innee oAAeethuha bika wa dhurriyyataha mina’sh-shaytani ’r-rajeem.
Fataqabbalaha rabbuha bi-qaboolin hasanin wa anbataha nabaatan hasanan wa kaffalaha Zakariyya. kullama dakhala `alayha zakariyya al-mihraba wajada `indaha rizqan. qaala ya maryamu anna laki haadha qaalat huwa min `indillahi inna Allaha yarzuqu man yasha’u bi-ghayri hisaab.
Behold! a woman of 'Imran said: "O my Lord! I do dedicate unto Thee what is in my womb for Thy special service: So accept this of me: For Thou hearest and knowest all things." When she was delivered, she said: "O my Lord! Behold! I am delivered of a female child!"- and Allah knew best what she brought forth- "And no wise is the male Like the female. I have named her Mary, and I commend her and her offspring to Thy protection from the Evil One, the Rejected."
Right graciously did her Lord accept her: He made her grow in purity and beauty: To the care of Zakariya was she assigned. Every time that he entered (Her) chamber to see her, He found her supplied with sustenance. He said: "O Mary! Whence (comes) this to you?" She said: "From Allah. for Allah Provides sustenance to whom He pleases without measure."[Surah Maryam, 35-37]
Allah accepted her from the mother of Maryam. He accepted from her. And Allah said, “I accepted that girl from you.” Wa anbataha nabaatan hasana - Allah raised her, and gave her a nice spiritual uplift in her life.” There are people who, male or female, when they give their lives to Allah and to the Prophet (s) and to awliyaullah, Allah will raise them in His way. Allah will guide them and direct them the way He likes, not the way they like. Because then they might be they like the zircon, and Allah likes them to be like the diamond. They have that purity in their hearts, so Allah guides them, wherever they go; this way, to the way the self likes, and brings them back. Hit them; bring them to the normal way. When they go far, bring them back. Allah raised the Virgin Mary. Allah raised Rabi`a al-`Adawiyya. Allah raised Sayyida Asiya; Allah raised Sayyida Khadija, Sayyida Fatima, and Sayyida A`yesha.
Allah raised them and guided important people; from men and from women, awliya. He gave Zakariyya to take care of her. Allah guided someone to take care of Virgin Mary; because she is young, she has to be guided, not to be left alone. So Zakariyya Alayhissalam was guiding Virgin Mary and she has been raised in that environment of prophecy. Zakariyya Alayhissalam was a prophet. Like awliyaullah, they will raise those who come to them. That environment is not easy. A lot of obstacles will come to them as they face it, but they keep moving, moving; like you are facing a hurricane, that strong wind, outside the eye of the hurricane -- that huge wind, going 140 miles per hour. You cannot resist. You try to stand, it pushes you back. So you have to hold something, in order to keep facing that wind. That one that you have to hold onto is your Shaykh. And he takes you to the Prophet (s) to hold onto and the Prophet (s) takes you to presence of Allah where there
is complete peace, no hurricane and no tornado.
And so I brought her up in the right way. You know anbata in Arabic means like when you plant a seed and it becomes a tree. I am planting her in a nice garden and bringing her up flowering. Now take care of her. That is why awliyaullah take care of their followers. And it depends, in different ranks. Those who are for dunya, ah, go for dunya. Give them what they like. Give them once and test them, and you will see them how much they are lying and cursing and shouting. They say, O that is for my Shaykh! Then there are others who are really doing for their Shaykh, through their hearts. Whatever is for the benefit of the Shaykh they are running for it. Don’t leave that rock; try to cut it and bring that diamond out. How to cut it? That is simple. You bring a knife, a special knife. There is a knife to cut wood, what do you call it? Saw.
For meat there is a special knife, what you call it? Knife.
You, Professor, for a diamond what do you need? There is special diamond saw to cut the diamond. Only diamonds can cut diamonds. Nothing cuts diamond except diamonds. That is why awliyaullah are diamonds that are able to cut these rocks, to bring these beautiful cuts. How many cuts in a diamond? There are normal diamonds, I don’t know them. There are round diamonds. There are oval diamonds, there are square diamonds. There are pointed diamonds like a pear. There are different cuts. And they tell you the price of the diamond depends on the cut of the diamond. That means if your Shaykh is from a low-quality diamond, then his cut is from a low-quality cut. And if your Shaykh is from a high quality diamond, then his cut is a high quality cut.
So that depends on how much power your Shaykh has from the cutter of diamonds. As much as he inherits from the Prophet (s) , he is going higher and higher, in order to make the perfect cut. The Prophet (s) is dressing him, the diamond cutter. The Prophet (s) does not have only one dress. He has an infinite number of dresses to dress human beings.
How much that wali is reaching the Prophetic heart; that heart is in the ocean of Allah’s love and Allah’s majestic power. However much that wali is deeply rooted in the prophetic heart of Allah’s love and majesty, that is how much the wali will be stronger, like the eye of the hurricane. They say to you in mining, as deep as the gem is rooted in the deep core of the stone that is the diamond, you will find the best diamond. There might be a few diamonds that are from the surface that they put out for you and polish, but they are not the best diamonds. That is just at the surface. If the shaykh is deeply rooted in the heart of Muhammad (s); deeply rooted in the ocean of beauty; that wali will be able to give you the perfect cut that you need. And there are awliyaullah with that power.
They are experimenting… not experimenting - they are working to cut the perfect cut for the hearts of their followers, in order to make them dedicated only to Allah . After, to His Prophet (s) , and after that to His awliya. Their focus, their aim, their goals, their dunya, their akhira, their lives, their wives, only for them is Prophet and shaykhs. They don’t see anything else. They don’t see right; they don’t see left. They only see forward: what is in their hearts. They give their lives for Allah, the Prophet, and awliya. Then he will begin the pouring of knowledge into their hearts.
Some people say, “we were with the Shaykh thirty or forty years. We didn’t see anything.”
Of course not, you are still rocking in rockness. Like a donkey in donkeyness. You will never come out of it. You are always in it. Wherever you are taking beads, or praying, you are in the middle. You are not a diamond. The diamond is for those who gave everything in their lives. There are many mureeds who are working. They love the Shaykh, they come and go, they attend the suhbat and dhikr, they do their work. They give donations, maybe 100, 200, 300 dollars. What more do we want? These are the middle gems; the zircons, the sapphires, they are rubies. They are not diamonds. Diamonds is when you give up everything, you come with nothing.
Sayyidina Ibrahim gave up everything, so what did they do to him? - They threw him in the fire. And Sayyidina Musa Alayhissalam gave up everything, and what they did with him? – They made him go across the sea, and to be lost in the desert for forty years. That is the reward. Why be lost in the desert? They were lost to lose their identity. “Lost in the desert” means losing your identity. In the desert there is no more identity except the sand. When you become sand, everyone steps on you, and what do you do with sand? You step on it. Did you ever hear the sand objecting? Earth never objects to whatever you throw on it. You dump all kinds of garbage on it. You put every kind of holes in it. You drill and take the oil. You dig and you get diamonds.
Awliyaullah are like earth: whatever you dump on them they give and never complain. So He made him lost in the desert for forty years. And he never objected.
As for Sayyidina Yusuf, what they did with him? His brothers threw him in the well; they were oppressors. What is madhlum? - Oppressed. Since he said nothing, no complaining, what did Allah make him? - The king of Egypt.
Sayyidina Isa , his own student betrayed him. Did he not? Those whom he wanted to cut into diamonds… to make them diamonds… he was even working on them to make them diamonds, and as he is a prophet, he knows the disciple will betray him. But what did he do? He covered it up, he hid it. He waited for that person to betray him. So that person betrayed him. What…Sayyidina `Isa Alayhissalam did not know? How he is a prophet and he doesn’t know? His own student betrayed him, even after he gave him everything – health, wealth and everything. But behind his back what did he do? He backstabbed him.
Don’t think there are people near the Shaykh and say, “O, the Shaykh is always taking care.” Because he knows their evil is so huge, so to keep the peace, keep them close. They are beasts. But there are others who dedicated their lives for their shaykhs. And Allah will raise them and Allah will make the Shaykh guide them in their lives. That is our hope -- that there are many in between that gave up everything in their lives for their shaykhs, doing their best in a critical time of their lives. They find things to do; they drop them down and are doing what the Shaykh needs. It means they are putting as a priority the work of the Shaykh instead of their work. If we can do that, we will be diamonds.
May Allah make us all diamonds, and perfect our hearts for the love of our Shaykh and keep us and bless in the way of Prophet and keep us in his footsteps, in order to reach the door of Allah , here and hereafter. Bi-hurmatil fatiha.
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